Turkish sergeant arrested after his ‘pun tweet’

AĞRI – Doğan News Agency

Kene in Turkish means tick, and the word is used by soldiers to make fun of generals who reach the rank “without achieving success.” DHA photo

A military court arrested a Turkish first sergeant in the eastern province of Ağrı for allegedly posting a tweet about his senior officers, calling them “ticks” using wordplay in Turkish, changing the first letter of “general” to k.

Kene in Turkish means tick, and the word is used by soldiers to make fun of generals who reach the rank “without achieving success.”

“Scientists do experiments on mice. And our generals [with k in Turkish] do on sergeants...” read his tweet posted by an account codenamed “dürümcü,” meaning wrapper.

Bülbül, who is the father of one, was arrested for revilement to his senior officers on April 4 by the military court and sent to military prison.

His lawyer, Mehmet Ali Gültekin, said the Twitter account’s owner was not yet known and the “suspect” denied that it was his account.

This is an unlawful arrest, according to Gültekin, and also Bülbül’s family’s rights were violated as their house was searched and “even his daughter’s underwear was taken as evidence.”