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Opposition MP under investigation for insulting Erdoğan in parliament

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İstanbul prosecutors on Tuesday launched an investigation into Cemal Enginyurt, a lawmaker who recently joined the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), over remarks in parliament that allegedly insulted and threatened President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Kısa Dalga news website reported.

The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into Enginyurt for “insulting and threatening the president.” The probe was launched ex officio, meaning authorities acted without a formal complaint.

The investigation stems from Enginyurt’s speech earlier in the day during a parliamentary group meeting of the CHP. Addressing Erdoğan, he said: “Rather than being a Yazid living in palaces, we will be like Martyr Hussein in the deserts of Karbala. That is why I address the creator of this empire of fear, the architect of this one-man rule, the enforcer of repression and tyranny: No ship can sail on a sea of oppression. Shame on us if we do not sink it. Shame on us if we do not make you share our fate in the prisons where we have been unjustly detained.”

Enginyurt’s reference to Yazid and Hussein carries deep historical and religious significance. Yazid I was an Umayyad caliph widely reviled by many Muslims for ordering the killing of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D. Hussein’s martyrdom is commemorated annually in Shiite Muslim tradition as a symbol of resistance against tyranny.

Enginyurt, a former member of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and later the center-right Democrat Party, joined the CHP on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by the party’s leader, Özgür Özel. Since leaving the MHP, the lawmaker has turned an outspoken critic of Erdoğan, frequently targeting the government over issues such as judicial independence and political repression.

The investigation into Enginyurt follows a broader crackdown on dissent in Turkey, where the authorities have used laws criminalizing insults of the president to prosecute thousands, including politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens.

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