Umit Ozdag, who leads the Zafer (Victory) party, was seen in a video calling supporters of the Green Left Party “murderers” and “those who came down from the mountain,” a reference to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group struggling for greater rights for Kurds in Turkey.
The Diyarbakir Bar Association announced on Twitter that they have filed a complaint against Ozdag with the city’s public prosecutor’s office, accusing him of humiliating Green Left voters.
“About the chairman of the Victory Party, during the election event, a criminal complaint was filed with the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office within the scope of the ‘crime of publicly humiliating a segment of the population" due to the words he said, "murderers" and "those who came down from the mountain," in reference to HDP and YSP [Green Left] voters,” reads the announcement.
The Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections will take place on May 14. The Green Left Party is running as the heir to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish party that is facing closure in a court case for alleged terror ties. In the 2018 parliamentary election, HDP won more than 6 million votes, becoming the third most popular party, behind the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Ozdag hit back at the Diyarbakir Bar Association on Twitter, calling it “openly hostile to the Turkish republic and the Turkish nation in every way possible.”
Ozdag is known for his anti-Kurdish and anti-refugee stances. Last week, he engaged in a Twitter feud with an Izmir-based Kurdish businessman who he called a “separatist” who helps the PKK.
