Oppn chief faces probe for calling Erdogan 'tinpot dictator'

Turkish prosecutors on Monday launched an investigation into the head of Turkey's main opposition party after he called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tinpot dictator".

Kemal Kilicdaroglu was speaking out against the detention of Turkish academics last week over a petition condemning the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, just days after Erdogan threatened the signatories.

"Academics who express their opinion are being detained, one by one, because of a tinpot dictator," Kilicdaroglu told a congress of his Republican People's Party (CHP) at the weekend.