Convicted crime boss faces up to 11 years for ‘blood bath’ remarks against campaigners

ANKARA

Turkish prosecutors have sought up to 11 years in prison for a previously convicted crime gang boss for his remarks vowing to “bathe in the blood” of signatories of a campaign launched in reaction to the Turkish Armed Forces’ anti-terror operations in the southeast.

In an indictment accepted by an Ankara court, Sedat Peker is charged with encouraging people to harm the plaintiffs and also directly threatening the plaintiffs that were referred to in the remarks.

“We will let your blood flow in streams and we will take a shower in your blood,” Peker said in a message posted on his personal website on Jan. 13. The message, titled “The So-Called Intellectuals, The Bells Will Toll For You First” was directed at a number of national and international academics who signed a declaration titled “We won’t be a part of this crime,” calling on the Turkish government to end the “massacre and slaughter” of locals of the region in operations targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).   

Peker, meanwhile, denied the charges while agreeing that the remarks were made by him.
 
“If you ask my opinion, you should not try to sink this STATE for your own health. The only reason that you are alive at the moment is the presence of the STATE and its survival. As I said in the aforementioned remarks, if the terrorists, you who are their supporters and foreign countries’ intelligence services – in sum, all of you – accomplish your goals and turn this STATE into a nonfunctioning situation, you should well know that you will never be shown mercy by THE CHILDREN of this HOMELAND,” Peker had said in his message using idiosyncratic capitalization norms before concluding: “I’m saying it again: WE WILL LET YOUR BLOOD FLOW IN STREAMS, AND WE WILL TAKE A SHOWER IN YOUR BLOOD!!!”