ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Turkish authorities launched an investigation into a Turkish billionaire on Saturday, after he made an insensitive joke about a Kurdish woman that sparked widespread backlash.

The remarks were made by Rahmi Koc, a 95-year-old Turkish billionaire, and previous chairman of the giant family-run Koc Holding conglomerate, during the opening ceremony of a hospital in Izmir on Friday.

The footage, showing Koc recount the joke that involves an exchange between a Kurdish woman and a doctor, later went viral, causing outrage.

“The doctor listened to the Kurdish woman’s complaint. When he said, ‘Madam, go behind the curtain and undress,’ the woman replied, ‘Doctor, you undress first,’” says Koc in the now-viral video.

Izmir’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an invesitgation ex officio into the comments, Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said in a statement on Saturday morning.

“The scales of justice do not weigh according to anyone's wealth, title, or status; the judiciary always protects human dignity and the law,” Gurlek wrote, adding that “uttering such remarks under the guise of a ‘joke’ or humor does not lessen the discourtesy shown towards our women and a specific segment of our society.”

Co-chair of the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Tuncer Bakirhan condemned Koc’s comments as “racist remarks that demean Kurdish women,”  calling his language “unacceptable”.

The Turkish businessman later apologized for his remarks in a statement posted by his family’s conglomerate on X on Saturday, saying “I sincerely apologize for my words, which I did not intend to target anyone. I sincerely want to share my regret.”

DEM Party said in a statement that it had filed a criminal complaint with Izmir’s Prosecutor’s Office against Koc for “publicly inciting hatred and hostility,” as well as “humiliation”, and “hate and discrimination.”

The pro-Kurdish party condemned the Forbes-listed billionaire’s “sexist remarks targeting the language, identity, and bodies of Kurdish women under the guise of humor,” calling it “a result of the discriminatory policies of male-dominated power.”

Koc stepped down from the conglomerate’s top position in 2003, handing the company over to his eldest son Mustafa Koc, who died of a heart attack in 2016 at the age of 55.