Sexual threat against HDP leader’s wife backfires as Turks rally around women
A threatening tweet against a jailed Kurdish opposition leader’s wife has Turkey up in arms against the patriarchal mindset that threatens women with sexual violence.
On June 13, Turkish social media was rocked by a crude threat from a pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) account. The target was Selahattin Demirtas and his wife, Basak Demirtas. Demirtas, the former chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), has been imprisoned since Nov. 2016 along with his co-chair Figen Yuksekdag.
Vedat Muti tweeted that Demirtas “has been in prison while his wife is free," saying, "She must be hot by now, one should extinguish her fire.”
Muti has been arrested, said Mahsuni Karaman, attorney of the Demirtas family. The complaints against him included intimidation, slander, incitement and sexual threats, Karaman explained.
Muti’s Twitter account was suspended. Screen shots provide ample information about his status as an “AK troll,” as certain pro-AKP social media users are called. These accounts often display flattering images of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and most of their followers are others like them.
