A man has been arrested for removing and damaging a banner featuring President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the northern Turkish province of Zonguldak, the İhlas News Agency (İHA) reported on Wednesday.
The banner had been hung by municipal workers on a pedestrian overpass along the Ankara-Zonguldak highway in the Devrek district.
The man, identified only as Ufuk Ö., removed the banner and began carrying it down from the overpass, according to İHA.
Municipal workers who arrived at the scene confronted him. Video recorded by bystanders showed one person asking, “Why are you taking this down?”
“Is this necessary? You can call the police and report it,” Ufuk Ö. replied.
The person, who was reportedly calling the police at the time, continued confronting him, saying: “You’re asking for trouble, aren’t you? … You think you’re above the president, don’t you?”
Authorities later determined that Ufuk Ö. had removed the banner and smeared it with grease. A warrant was issued for his detention, and gendarmes took him into custody shortly afterward.
Following questioning at a local gendarmerie station, he was referred to court, where a judge ordered his arrest pending trial. İHA did not specify what charges he faces.
The arrest comes amid longstanding criticism of the broad legal protections afforded to Erdoğan and the frequent prosecution of perceived insults against him.
Thousands of people in Turkey have been investigated, prosecuted or convicted under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, which criminalizes insulting the president and carries a prison sentence of one to four years. The sentence is increased by one-sixth if the offense is committed through the media.
In a 2021 ruling in the case of Vedat Şorli, the European Court of Human Rights found that Turkey had violated his freedom of expression by prosecuting him under Article 299 and said that granting heads of state special protection under criminal insult laws was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Despite the ruling, Turkish authorities have continued to prosecute journalists, opposition politicians and ordinary citizens under the provision.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
