Turkey: Insult Ataturk, Get Deported

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | August 20th, 2009 | Trackback

Not many tourists will strip naked and shout insults at the statue of a revered national leader, but the 19-year-old British man who did so in front of the Ataturk statue on the waterfront in Marmaris earned his punishment: deportation and banishment for five years. Turkish law calls for imprisonment for Turks who insult Ataturk, and action for foreigners can also be swift. The man was taken to a hospital to see if he was mentally unstable or drunk, deemed healthy, then put in jail for several hours until a special court heard his case on a Sunday and deported him. A boatman who witnessed the outburst said the man was lucky the police arrived so quickly because the locals wanted to kill him for his insults.

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