However, article 299 of Turkish Penal Code remains valid because of the concerns of the state establishment for “protecting public order and democratic society” and is mostly used on a selective basis.

The article is criticized by right groups and opposition as they see it as a tactic to suppress criticism in the country and to create an atmosphere of fear.

In 2014, Turkish police arrested a 16-year-old boy for insulting Erdogan during a speech at a student protest. The pupil was taken out of his class by police force – a move that went against the UN charter on child rights.

A year later, in 2015, two children, aged 12 and 13, were sent to prison over charges of insulting the president after they tore posters of his image in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

They said they were trying to sell the paper to recyclers to make money, and did not look carefully at the pictures.

In January, Erdogan pardoned two Turkish children after a trial over their insulting him and the government on social media, provided that they apologize to him and learn nationalist poems by heart.

Recently, Turkish dissident journalist Ender Imrek was found innocent of “insulting” Erdogan’s wife, Emine Erdogan, following an article he wrote last year to criticize the “extravagance” of first lady when she was appearing in public with a $50,000-worth handbag when people in the country are seriously suffering from hunger and unemployment.

The indictment said that Imrek had insulted the First Lady by “not praising her.”

In the meantime, video streaming giant YouTube accepted the appointment of a Turkish representative in compliance with the country’s recent social media regulation — a legal move that is likely to trigger widespread censorship for online expression and open the way for more prosecutions for insulting charges.

However, other politicians in Turkey are constantly insulted and threatened with total impunity for the perpetrators.

Notorious mafia leader Alaattin Cakici, politically affiliated with the government’s coalition partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has attacked the main opposition party Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) and its leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu several times over the past month with letters full of insults and even death threats.

MHP deputy leader Semih Yalcin recently insulted the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), calling it “a flock of insects that needs to be killed” — which also aroused fears of incitement to genocide.