Wife of Turkish PM files complaint about opposition deputy

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Emine Erdoğan delivers a speech at the Japanese Embassy in Ankara.

Emine Erdoğan, the wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has filed a complaint against a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over his controversial heckling of her during a reception last week.

In the petition, submitted to the Office of Ankara’s Chief Prosecutor on Nov. 29, Erdoğan’s lawyers recalled how CHP deputy Kamer Genç heckled their client during her speech at the Japanese Embassy in Ankara on Nov. 26, at a reception on the occasion of the emperor’s birthday, which is a national holiday in Japan. 

“By which title are you speaking here? You don’t have any position in [state] protocol,” Genç shouted during Erdoğan’s speech. The lawyers stated in their petition that “the suspect acted to insult and humiliate on purpose. Genç’s statements, and particularly his manners, included the crime of insult via ‘swearing,’” they said. Erdoğan’s speech at the reception was a result of the principle of reciprocity, as the spouse of the Japanese prime minister had also attended a Turkish reception in Japan and the Japanese ambassador himself had asked her to deliver a speech, the lawyers also noted. “The suspect does not have the authority to make political criticism as to the venue and the time. This is because those [at the reception] are dependent on the rules of the host.” Genç has suggested that the ruling party has been targeting him because he has revealed corruption that the party has been involved in.