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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed 38,581 lawsuits for "insulting the president" since he assumed office in August 2014, according to a report by an opposition deputy.
The five presidents before him had filed 1,816 cases in total, noted main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Gülizar Biçer-Karaca.
Erdoğan's predecessor Abdullah Gül, who was also a member of the AKP, filed 848 cases in seven years, marking a 420 percent increase from Ahmet Necdet Sezer's term in office.
During Erdoğan's term, the number of cases filed increased by 2,052 percent.
In the last three years;
• 2,775 of the 6,270 people sued were convicted in 2018
• 4,291 of the 13,990 people sued were convicted in 2019
• 3,665 of the 9,773 people sued were convicted in 2020.
Kenan Evren, the leader of the 1980 military coup who served as the president between 1980 and 1989, had sued 340 people for insulting the president.
Evren's successors, Turgut Özal, Süleyman Demirel and Ahmet Necdet Sezer had filed 207 and 163 cases, respectively. (TP/VK)
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