Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the statue a "freak", and months later it was demolished. Aksoy sued Erdoğan for "moral indemnities", although his lawyer said that his statement was a critique rather than an insult. In March 2015, a judge ordered Erdoğan to pay Aksoy 10,000 lira. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (; ; born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as President of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to general election victories
Zal Batmanglij Zal Batmanglij Zal Batmanglij (born 1981) is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed and co-wrote the 2011 film "Sound of My Voice" and the 2013 film "The East", both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Netflix series "The OA", which debuted in 2016. Batmanglij was born in 1981 in France to Iranian parents and grew up in Washington, D.C.. His mother, Najmieh Batmanglij, is a cookbook author; his father is a book publisher. His younger brother Rostam was a founding member of the band Vampire Weekend. Both brothers are gay. Batmanglij studied