Investigation opened: Ahmet Davutoğlu summoned as a suspect

Ahmet Davutoğlu has been summoned to Ankara Courthouse as a suspect in an investigation into alleged insults against Turkey’s president. He is scheduled to give a statement at 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 7.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said it opened the investigation under Article 299/1 of the Turkish Penal Code. Prosecutors reviewed social-media posts containing statements they considered insulting to the president.

The remarks at issue came from a speech Davutoğlu gave during a visit to Bingöl in September 2021. He said: “They added billions to their billions, ate illicit food, enriched those around them, made their son-in-law a minister, enriched their relatives, and handed Turkey over to five contractors.”

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They added billions to their billions, ate illicit food, enriched those around them, made their son-in-law a minister, enriched their relatives, and handed Turkey over to five contractors.

Davutoğlu’s lawyer, Hasan Seymen, said the remarks were part of Davutoğlu’s response to accusations made by a person he described as an obvious provocateur in the Genç district of Bingöl. Seymen said Davutoğlu viewed answering every allegation and cooperating with every legal process as a matter of principle.

He added: “I was deeply saddened about the state of the legal order in my country because we learned about an investigation into a prime minister who served our country with honor from the press rather than from the legal authorities.”

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I was deeply saddened about the state of the legal order in my country because we learned about an investigation into a prime minister who served our country with honor from the press rather than from the legal authorities.