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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday filed a legal complaint against Meral Aksener, chairman of the opposition Iyi (Good) Party, for allegedly insulting him, Turkey Purge reports, citing local media. 

Erdogan filed the complaint due to Aksener’s remarks at a rally in Denizli in the run-up to local elections on March 31. According to the president's lawyer Huseyin Aydin, Aksener said on Wednesday Erdogan called the people of the province “terrorists” for their political choices.

In his remarks Erdogan had claimed that an alliance of opposition parties includes the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which he called the political representative of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). His lawyer said that the president warned the people against this relationship and urged them to be sensitive to it.

Erdogan’s lawyer asked for a “case in the name of the public” against Aksener for insulting the president.

Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey, according to the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). Whoever insults the president can face up to four years in prison, a sentence that can be increased if the crime was committed through the mass media.

According to the Denge ve Denetleme Ağı, or DDA (Checks and Balances Network), an umbrella civil society group that consists of 271 nongovernmental organizations, 13,000 cases have been filed against individuals over the past seven years based on Article 299. The group said elected individuals should be more tolerant of criticism, satire and accusations, which are a natural result of being in those posts.

The slightest criticism of Erdogan is considered an insult, and there has been a rise in the number of cases in Turkey in which people inform on others claiming that they insulted the president, the government or government officials.