A Turkish prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation against a number of people for their posts on the social media platform ‘Ekşisözlük’, or ‘Sourdictionary’, regarding Turkish soldiers who recently lost their lives during the ongoing military operations against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas in Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to an official statement by the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation focuses on users of Ekşi Sözlük who allegedly violated the law by “disseminating content that denigrates the memory of martyred soldiers or commits criminal acts against them”.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced on his X account that an arrest warrant had been issued for a person responsible for posting “offensive content” about fallen soldiers on social media.
The investigation comes after the ongoing clashes in northern Iraq intensified, with the Defence Ministry announcing the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers on Saturday, putting casualties from the operations on Turkey’s agenda.
The Ankara prosecutor’s investigation targets critical, harsh comments over a social media post by the father of one of the soldiers killed, who said: “How happy I am that my son became a martyr”.