Woman who blamed Erdogan for Turkey’s Instagram ban jailed for 'insult'

The arrest of a Turkish woman early Tuesday for insulting Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and “inciting hatred and hostility among the public” drew an angry reaction from the country’s main opposition leader, who called the move “unacceptable.”

Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the pro-secular Republican People’s Party, said, “Politicians being open to the heaviest criticism from the public is a prerequisite of democracy. … Arresting a citizen for airing their personal views is disproportionate and politically motivated.”

The woman, identified as Dilruba Y., was arrested and imprisoned after criticizing Erdogan in an Aug. 8 street interview with YouTube broadcaster “Furry Microphone” in the port city of Izmir, a CHP stronghold. She took aim at the president over the government’s decision last week to block Instagram — it has since been rescinded — saying it was a result of the vast powers that he enjoyed.

“If you abandon the parliamentary system in the 21st century and hand over [control of the country] to a single man, he will use it like his father’s barn,” she said, using a Turkish expression for abusing power. In 2018, Erdogan entrenched his one-man authoritarian rule after ditching Turkey’s more than 60-year-old parliamentary system in favor of an executive presidency that was narrowly approved in a 2017 referendum.