--- description: A court in Turkey has asked experts to determine if a Turkish man has insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by comparing him to Gollum title: Is It an Insult to Compare Turkey's President to Gollum? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5d96431e1c1f9be/69887361ab6d77b2a66a7608/rtrtbv.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Turkish Court Is Trying to Figure Out if It's an Insult to Compare the President to Gollum by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 2, 2015 7:47 AM CUT  Gollum, a special-effects creature from the movie Lord of the Rings, is on display at the annual four-day Comic Con convention in San Diego on July 18, 2003\. Thousands of fans from around the world gather to peruse a collection of comic books and industry-related sci-fi, video and motion-picture fantasy products Gollum, a special-effects creature from the movie Lord of the Rings, is on display at the annual four-day Comic Con convention in San Diego on July 18, 2003\. Thousands of fans from around the world gather to peruse a collection of comic books and industry-related sci-fi, video and motion-picture fantasy productsMike Blake—Reuters by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 2, 2015 7:47 AM CUT A court in Turkey has solicited experts to conduct a [character assessment](http://www.todayszaman.com/national%5Fcourt-asks-for-expert-examination-of-gollum-character%5F405845.html "undefined") of Gollum, from _The Lord of the Rings_, because the judge is unsure if a comparison between the character and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is insulting. In October, a physician named Bilgin Ciftci was fired from his job at the Public Health Institution of Turkey after he shared a meme that juxtaposed Gollum (a slimy, menacing humanoid) and Erdogan in a series of postures, the Turkish newspaper _Today’s_ Z_aman_ reports. Cifti now faces up to two years in prison for insulting the President, though he claims that Gollum is not a “bad character,” the paper says. > [](https://twitter.com/akyildirim/status/654675415282286592) Neither the prosecutor nor the judge presiding over the case has seen _The Lord of the Rings_ film adaption series in its entirety, so the court has brought in two academics, two behavioral scientists and a media expert to determine if Cifti did indeed seek to insult the President. The hearing has been postponed until February 2016. The BBC [reports](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34979249 "undefined") that 105 people were indicted in Turkey between August 2014 and March 2015 for “insulting the head of state.” The country’s press freedom ranks 149th out of 180 nations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4132235/tayyip-erdogan-turkey-gollum-lord-of-the-rings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4132235/tayyip-erdogan-turkey-gollum-lord-of-the-rings/"},"headline":"A Turkish Court Is Trying to Figure Out if It's an Insult to Compare the President to Gollum","datePublished":"2015-12-02T07:47:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:01:47.960Z","description":"The man who made the comparison faces up to two years in prison","url":"https://time.com/4132235/tayyip-erdogan-turkey-gollum-lord-of-the-rings/","keywords":["Turkey","press freedom","Lord of the Rings"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5d96431e1c1f9be/69887361ab6d77b2a66a7608/rtrtbv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5d96431e1c1f9be/69887361ab6d77b2a66a7608/rtrtbv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"LORD OF THE RINGS CREATURE ON DISPLAY AT COMIC CON IN SAN DIEGO.","caption":"LORD OF THE RINGS CREATURE ON DISPLAY AT COMIC CON IN SAN DIEGO.","creditText":"Mike Blake—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4132235/tayyip-erdogan-turkey-gollum-lord-of-the-rings/","name":"A Turkish Court Is Trying to Figure Out if It's an Insult to Compare the President to Gollum"}}]}] ```