Ankara, Turkey (AP)-A Turkish extreme right-wing politician accused of incitement to public hatred and hostility went on Wednesday in a case that critics considered an attempt to suppress opposition to the president.
Umit Ozdag, the leader of the Turkish victory party, was held in January for accusations that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with comments he made during a party meeting in Antalya.
A day later, Ozdag was formally arrested and accused of encouraging hatred against migrants. He was blamed for last year's anti-Syrian refugee riots in the central Turkish province of Kayseri last year, in which hundreds of houses and companies were attacked.
Public Prosecutors have presented a series of reports from the social media of Ozdag as evidence against him. He is confronted with a maximum of four years in prison if he is found guilty.
Ozdag, a 64-year-old former academic, is a pronounced critic of Turkey's refugee policy and has previously called for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees.
Ozdag acknowledged to argue for the return of refugees during the opening of his trial in a prison complex on the outskirts of Istanbul. He denied that he had collected for violence against them and told the court that he had worked to calm tensions in Kayeri.
In his defense declaration, Ozagag claimed that his imprisonment was politically motivated and aimed at silencing him because of his criticism of the government attempt to end conflict with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party of PKK for decades.
“The reason why I am here … is because I criticized that the conversations held with the chief of the PKK terrorist organization,” said Ozdag.
The victory party strongly opposes all the concessions on the PKK that Turkey, together with many Western states,, including the United States, regards Great Britain and the European Union, a terrorist organization. The conflict with the PKK has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths since the 1980s.
When the trial was opened on Wednesday, the Ozdag lawyers asked more time to prepare and the procedure was postponed until Tuesday.
The politician's process comes in the midst of a widespread action against the opposition against Erdogan's Justice and Development Party.
Civil servants of municipalities controlled by the most important opposition – the Republican People's Party or CHP – have confronted this year with waves of arrests. Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu was held in March for accusations of corruption.
Many people in Turkey regard things as politically driven, according to opinion polls. However, the government of Erdogan states that the courts are impartial and are free from political involvement.
Imamoglu is generally seen as the most important challenger of the two decades of Erdogan and is the candidate of the CHP for the next presidential election. The elections must be held in 2028, but could be kept earlier.
