A primary school teacher in Turkey’s eastern province of Malatya was arrested bya court on Monday on charges of insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, Turkish media reports have said.
The teacher, Murat K. reportedly wrote in a message on social media that Atatürk was the “biggest devil of the 20th century.”
Due to complaints, an investigation was launched into the teacher by the provincial education directorate and the teacher’s house was raided by police officers on Monday morning. He was subsequently detained.
The teacher was arrested by a court later in the day on charges of violating the law governing crimes committed against Atatürk and fomenting hatred and enmity among the public.
An article in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) protects Atatürk’s memory, stipulating one to three years in prison for explicit insults of him.
In a similar case in July, a woman who recorded herself in a video insulting Atatürk at his mausoleum in Ankara was arrested.
In the video, the woman, Safiye İnci, compared Atatürk with current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and said, “Atatürk cannot even be the sh*t of Erdoğan.”
The woman’s video caused a storm of public outrage after her friend posted it on social media.