A Turkish far-right politician accused of inciting public hatred and hostility is facing up to four and a half years in prison, the prosecutor on the case said at a trial hearing on Wednesday.
Ümit Özdağ, the leader of the Victory Party (ZP), was detained in January initially over accusations he “insulted” the president, but the scope of the investigation was later expanded to include charges of inciting public hatred and hostility.
A day later, Özdağ was formally arrested and charged with inciting hatred against migrants. He was blamed for last year’s anti-Syrian refugee riots in the central province of Kayseri, during which hundreds of homes and businesses were attacked.
Prosecutors have presented a series of posts from Özdağ’s social media as evidence against him.
Özdağ acknowledged advocating the return of refugees at the opening hearing of his trial at a prison complex on the outskirts of Istanbul. He denied he had incited violence against them and told the court he had worked to calm tensions in Kayseri.
In his defense statement, Özdağ maintained that his imprisonment was politically motivated and aimed at silencing him over his criticism of the government’s recent effort to end the decades-long terror campaign of the PKK.
“The reason why I am here ... is because I criticized the talks held with the PKK terrorist organization’s chief,” Özdağ said.
The ZP strongly opposes any concessions to the PKK, which Türkiye, along with many Western states, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, considers a terrorist organization. The PKK’s bloody campaign has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths since the 1980s.
Under what has been dubbed the “terror-free Türkiye initiative,” the PKK announced last month it would lay down arms and dissolve itself per a historic call from its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan.
When the trial opened Wednesday, Özdağ’s lawyers requested more time to prepare, and the proceedings were adjourned until Tuesday.
The ZP Chair, however, is widely known for his aggressive “interviews” with migrants and refugees and perpetuated the claims of a “silent invasion” of Türkiye by refugees and migrants from around the world. He rode a wave of popularity amid fluctuating anti-refugee sentiment, which helped the rise of far-rightists in the country, blaming their burden on the economy.
He was a former lawmaker from the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). He later joined the Good Party (IP), founded by former MHP politicians and left that party too in 2021 and formed the ZP, which proved popular among the social media youth nurturing far-right views.
In the 2023 elections, Özdağ endorsed Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, candidate of a six-party opposition bloc against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while ZP won 2.2% of the vote in legislative elections where it jointly ran with the Justice Party under the “ATA Alliance.” In last year’s municipal elections, it won only 1.74% of the vote.
