According to the Birgun daily, the charges center on two speeches Demirtas delivered in Mersin and Diyarbakir in 2015, during a period of intense political tension surrounding Turkey’s elections in June and November of the same year. During Friday’s hearing at the Mersin 14th Criminal Court of First Instance, the court agreed to merge the two case files.

In those remarks he accused Erdogan and then-prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu of supporting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Nusra Front) and Ahrar al-Sham, alleging that the government provided the groups with arms, money and logistical assistance. Prosecutors say the accusations constitute “insulting the president” under Turkish law.

In Turkey thousands of people are investigated, prosecuted or convicted on charges of insulting the president on the basis of the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The crime carries up to four years in prison, a sentence that can be increased if the act was committed using mass media.

Demirtas, 52, was arrested on November 4, 2016, on “terrorism-related” charges as part of a government crackdown on opposition figures. Once one of Turkey’s most prominent political voices, he remains widely regarded in Western capitals as a political prisoner.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has now ruled three times — in 2018, 2020 and 2025 — that Demirtas’s detention violated his rights, concluding that Turkish authorities aimed to silence political opposition. The latest ruling ordered Ankara to pay over €55,000 in damages and legal fees.

Demirtas did not attend the hearing, and the trial was adjourned until January 6, 2026.