ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sued pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtas for causing “moral damages”, slander and invectiveness.
Erdogan’s team of lawyers, Fatih Sahin, Burhanetin Sevenan and Muammer Cemaloglu, filed two separate lawsuits, demanding 70,000 Turkish liras (or around $25,000), against Demirtas at a court in Ankara on Tuesday.
The charges against Demirtas stem from his remarks that he allegedly made against Erdogan at an HDP group meeting on July 28 and during a visit at the headquarters of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed in Ankara after the July 20 Suruc incident in southeastern Turkey that left 32 people dead.
Demirtas was accused of not taking into account the public’s interest while criticizing and “violating President Erdogan’s personal rights”.
According to the petition, Demirtas’ comment on remarks made by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli was also an act of “invectiveness” against Erdogan.
