Ankara prosecutors file suit against Athens daily over front-page headline hurling obscenity against Turkish leader Erdogan

Turkey’s increasingly politicized judiciary again went into “retribution mode” this week against media criticism aimed at an already thin-skinned Recep Tayyip Erdogan, although this time the target is a small-circulation Athens daily.

According to reports, the Ankara prosecutor’s office – among the most potent persecutors of journalists and media institutions expressing an anti-Erdogan position – has filed a lawsuit against the daily “Dimokratia” and its top editorial staff.

The lawsuit specifically cites the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, two editors, and a columnist, the newspaper revealed.

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is prosecuting Dimokratia and wants to convict four of its staff members to a prison term in Turkey, which can reach up to five years. This is the first time that a foreign head of state has turned against a Greek newspaper, and for political reasons, as it clearly appears from the text of the lawsuit dispatched by the Ankara prosecutor’s office,” the paper added.

The Turkish prosecutor’s office took offense to a Sept. 18, 2020 front-page headline in “Dimokratia” attacking Erdogan and his government, using the admittedly obscene term “Siktir Git” (f*** you), in the wake of another series of provocations by Ankara in the eastern Mediterranean.

According to the newspaper, its staff and ownership will ignore the challenge, referring to a “parody” legal maneuver, while also saying it is an “honor” to be considered an obstacle to the Erdogan government’s “expansionist and dangerous plans.”