An indictment prepared by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in İstanbul is seeking a jail sentence of four-and-a-half years for historian Mustafa Armağan on charges of insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Armağan, the host of the “Derin Tarih” TV show aired on the pro-government station TVNET, attracted widespread criticism when he claimed in a May 6 broadcast that Atatürk’s foster child, Afet İnan, was his illegitimate wife.
After the claims stirred outrage on social media, investigations were launched into Armağan as well as commentators Süleyman Yeşilyurt and Yavuz Bahadıroğlu for “defamation.”