ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday sued the country’s main opposition leader who had said Erdogan was responsible for the deaths of 13 people held hostages by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Duhok.
Erdogan’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and demanded 500,000 Turkish liras ($71,471) after he claimed in parliament and later on his Twitter account that Erdogan was “responsible” for the deaths of the 13 hostages.
The hostages were mostly members of Turkey’s security forces. Their dead bodies were found by Turkish soldiers on Duhok’s Mount Gara, during their latest offensive against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region.
The offensive, dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle 2, was launched on February 10 and ended four days later. Turkey blamed the PKK for the deaths while the PKK claimed that the 13 hostages were killed in a Turkish bombardment.
Turkish officials and pro-government media have targeted the opposition, especially the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), following the offensive. CHP and HDP have accused Erdogan of trying to cover up a failed attempt to rescue the hostages, who are all Turkish citizens except one native of Duhok who was being held by the PKK for alleged espionage for Ankara.
Kilicdaroglu has been sued by Erdogan several times in the past, mostly for defamation. Between 2010 and 2018, Kilicdaroglu was fined 822,000 Turkish liras because of lawsuits from Erdogan’s lawyers, according to the opposition Cuhmuriyet news outlet.
In January, Erdogan filed a legal case against the CHP leader, demanding one million liras after Kilicdaroglu called him a “so-called president.”
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