Ali Mahir Başarır, deputy parliamentary group chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), angered the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its supporters over his insulting words. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself filed a lawsuit for compensation from Başarır.
Although CHP officials, including the party’s leader Özgür Özel, are known for their scathing remarks targeting government officials, it was the first time that a party figure openly named their fight against the government as a fight against “n...suzlar,” a Turkish word which is also used as a swear word. Özel, who initially opened up to the idea of improving relations with the AK Party after taking office in 2023, escalated his anti-AK Party and anti-Erdoğan rhetoric but, more often than not, restrained himself from openly insulting the president.
Başarır’s remarks at an event in the northwestern province of Bursa earlier this week found a strong response among AK Party officials, including the party’s deputy chair, Efkan Ala.
“This vulgar address to the respected institutions of our republic, especially the Presidency, is a typical manifestation of hostility disguised as opposition. This attitude turns politics from a contest of ideas into an arena of hatred. Above all, it is disrespectful to the people they claim to represent. Başarır’s language crosses the line of legitimate criticism and turns into morally illegitimate aggression and vulgarity. Democracy grows through ideas, not insults; opposition gains meaning through vision, not ugly words. Yet some evidently mistake covering their intellectual shortcomings with such ugly language for politics,” Ala said in a social media post on Monday.
Başarır’s rhetoric “is far removed from the elegance of democratic competition and the dignity of intellectual debate,” AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik wrote in another social media post. “It resembles not politics, but street thug talk.”
