A 16-year-old high school student has been
arrested in central Turkey for “insulting” President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan by accusing him and his
ruling party of corruption, sparking angry criticism
on Thursday from the opposition.
The boy, identified by his initials M.E.A., was
believed to be a member of a leftist organisation,
the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
He delivered a speech on Wednesday in the
central Anatolian city of Konya, a bastion of
Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and
Development Party (AKP), in memory of a young
secular teacher killed by Islamists in 1930,
according to the newspaper.
The boy, who was arrested by police at school, is
now facing up to four years in prison if convicted
on the charge.
It was the latest controversial arrest in Turkey in
recent weeks. Recent police raids on media
outlets affiliated with Erdogan’s top foe, the US-
based cleric Fethullah Gulen, sparked an angry
exchange with the European Union, which said the
arrests undermined media freedom.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu supported the
court’s decision on the juvenile’s arrest.
“Everyone must respect the office of president
whoever he is,” Davutoglu said, quoted in Turkish
media.
In his testimony to prosecutors, the boy denied
links with any political party and said that the
local governor’s office granted permission for the
commemoration ceremony organised through
social media.
“I’ve made the statement in question. I have no
intent to insult,” he reportedly said.
The boy’s lawyer, Baris Ispir, submitted a petition
to the court, together with around 100 colleagues
who came from Istanbul in a show of support.
“Even if he is convicted, he is 16 years old which
requires a one-third reduction in his penalty,” the
lawyer said, according to the private Dogan news
agency.
Riza Turmen, lawmaker of the secular opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP), denounced the
arrest as a violation of the UN charter on
children’s rights.
“Regimes taking children out of classes by police
force and putting them in jail are fascist regimes,”
Turmen, a former judge at the European Court of
Human Rights, wrote on Twitter.
“This goes against the UN charter on children’s
rights.”
Turkey’s government faced an unprecedented
wave of protests in 2013 against what was seen
as authoritarian policies from Erdogan, who was
then prime minister.
The AKP government was shaken by a vast
corruption scandal last December that dragged
down four ministers facing accusations of bribery
and influence-peddling.
Erdogan, who was elected president in August,
angrily accused his former ally-turned-foe Gulen
of concocting the graft scandal.
Thirty people were arrested in raids earlier this
month against those deemed to have links to
Gulen.
Most have now been released but a court has
remanded in custody on terrorism charges the
head of the pro-Gulen Samanyolu TV and three
former police chiefs. It also issued an arrest
warrant for Gulen himself.
In power since 2003, Erdogan has brought relative
stability to Turkey after years of rocky coalition
governments and an economic meltdown in 2001.
But what critics describe as his increasingly
authoritarian style and zero-tolerance of criticism
have proved a major test for democracy in the
country which has long sought to join the
European Union.
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