Ayvaz Gokdemir

1942 (age 66)

Gaziantep, Gaziantep Province, Turkey

In a memorable episode, he caused much controversy and acquired international notoriety in June 1995, when he reacted to the declarations made by three female parliamentarians of the European Parliament on visit to Turkey (Pauline Green, the then leader of the Party of European Socialists, Catherine Lalumière, representing the European Radical Alliance, and Claudia Roth, the chairperson of the Green Group at the time), by qualifying the deputies as "prostitutes coming from Europe". While some viewed his tone as unbecoming for someone who had reached the position of a minister, others explained it by "a sort of disgust and scepticism towards Europe, constantly present among the Turkish elite" and evaluated it within the frame of the freedom of expression. Among the three parliamentarians, Claudia Roth took judicial action against Gökdemir, who had to pay an indemnity as a consequence of the court"s verdict.