Erdoğan files complaint against Dutch MP Wilders

ANKARA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct. 27 lodged a criminal complaint against Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders over an insulting tweet.

“Fascism is not in our book, it is in your book. Social justice is in our book,” Erdoğan said on Sunday at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the eastern Malatya province, calling Wilders a “fascist.”

His remarks came after the leader of the Dutch political Party for Freedom (PVV), Wilders, known for his anti-Islam stance, shared on Twitter an insulting cartoon of the Turkish president, which was denounced by several Turkish officials, including Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

The cartoon that Wilders has shared portrayed the Turkish president wearing a bomb-shaped hat bearing the logo of the AKP on his head with a headline as “terrorist.”

He also posted another tweet, saying, “Bye-bye Erdoğan,” and urged NATO to take Turkey out of the bloc.