Kuwaiti man faces criminal complaint for insulting Atatürk

ANKARA

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced that a criminal complaint has been filed against a Kuwaiti individual over allegations of insulting modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish passport through his social media posts.

"Under the coordination of our General Directorate of Security's cybercrimes unit, it has been determined that the Kuwaiti so-called writer, under the name Abdulaziz Ramih, has made many posts publicly insulting the passport of the Turkish Republic and the founder of our republic, Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk," Yerlikaya wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sept. 20.

One of the contentious posts in question featured a photo of the Kuwaiti writer's Turkish passport accompanied by a caption that read, "It is one of the cheapest types in the world. Invest 400,000 dollars and buy it immediately. I support any Arab to buy this and become Türkiye's presidential candidate, destroy Mustafa Kemal's statues and burn his picture."

Yerlikaya revealed that the writer's true identity as Abdulaziz E. Alhajri and that place of residence in Kuwait has been verified. A criminal complaint has been officially filed against him in response to the offensive posts.

Furthermore, the minister pointed out that the Kuwaiti writer had also posted messages of support for an individual only identified by initials A.E.S, who had been detained for allegedly insulting Atatürk on social media.