PRİME MİNİSTER ERDOGAN’S STRONGMAN

The Post's View

Prime Minister Erdogan’s Strongman Response To Turkey’s Protests

By Editorial Board June 3, 2013 

“How Can a government that received almost 50 percent of the vote be authoritarian.?” Asked an adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, even as police attacked crowds of peaceful protesters.

The question goes to the heart of what is wrong with Mr. Erdogan’s ruling style, and the answer can be found not only in the policies pursued by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) during the past dozen years but also in the way it has responded to protests by hundreds of thousands of exasperated citizens.

Turkey is an electoral democracy, and the AKP has won three consecutive elections by increasing margins. But the past week’s events have underlined that the country no longer has the robust free press found in Western nations. As protesters poured into Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the country’s television media looked away: CNN Turkey broadcast a cooking program. Even print journalists pulled their punches, and with good reason: According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkey has imprisoned at least 49 journalists because of their work, more than any other country.

In a democracy, peaceful dissent not only is accepted but also often compels changes in government policy. Turkey’s protesters began with a local but legitimate grievance, a government decision to eliminate a park adjacent to Taksim Square. Rather than tolerate them, the government dispatched riot police, which in turn caused the demonstrations to spread and to raise broader issues. Turkey’s secular and religious minorities have much to lament, from the recent imposition of tight controls on alcohol sales to Mr. Erdogan’s support for Sunni rebels in Syria.

Unlike President Abdullah Gul, who defended dissenters’ right to protest, Mr. Erdogan angrily claimed they had been “organized by extremists” and were sponsored by foreigners.

He vowed to press ahead with the destruction of the park in spite of a court ruling against it. It was the reaction that might be expected from a strongman such as Russia’s Vladi­mir Putin - from whom Mr. Erdogan appears to be taking some cues.

A new constitution for which he is pressing would give substantial new powers to the office of president, opening the way for the Turkish leader, like Mr. Putin, to remain in office for another decade after his term as prime minister expires.

As Mr. Erdogan sees it, the fact that a majority of Turkish voters supports him entitles him to push through his agenda in spite of legal niceties and to tear - gas, imprison or otherwise intimidate those who object.

Disturbingly, this “majoritarian” view of politics also has been embraced by the democratically elected Islamist government of Egypt. The result in both countries has been a dangerous polarization between religious and secular forces that threatens to destabilize longtime U.S. allies.

The Obama administration, which has cultivated a relationship with Mr. Erdogan, has responded to the protests by expressing concern about “the excessive use of force” and supporting the right of free assembly. It should say more. For Turkey’s allies, the crisis offers an opportunity to tell Mr. Erdogan that democracy consists of more than elections - and that he is offering unfortunate proof that it is possible to be both elected and authoritarian.

Read more in Opinions:

Lally Weymouth: A Q&A with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

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TURKEY THREATENS DEMOCRACY

The Post's View

The news media crackdown in Turkey threatens democracy

By Editorial Board December 21, 2014 

Autocrats Often feel compelled to invent pretexts, no matter how unconvincing, for crushing their opponents. In the latest round of attacks on the news media in Turkey, warrants were issued for the arrest of journalists in which it was stated they are suspected of nefarious deeds, such as plotting “to seize state power” or forming an armed organization to support terrorists. These trumped-up claims are intended to divert attention from a crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his critics and rivals. At stake is Turkey’s democracy.

On Dec. 14, Turkish police arrested the editor of the daily Zaman newspaper, the head of the Samanyolu broadcasting group and others. Crowds thronged outside the newspaper headquarters in Istanbul when police arrived, and newspaper workers hoisted banners declaring that a “free press cannot be silenced.” All told, about two dozen people were detained, including journalists, producers, scriptwriters and a police chief in eastern Turkey. Eight journalists were released Friday, but others remain in custody.

They have all been swept up into the vortex of Mr. Erdogan’s paranoia about a Sunni cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Once an ally of Mr. Erdogan, he is now branded by the president as a foe bent on toppling him from power. The journalists’ arrests are just the most recent attempt by Mr. Erdogan to wipe out the influence that Mr. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, still commands in Turkey.Mr. Erdogan appears to be hurtling toward the kind of autocracy evident today in Russia.

Mr. Erdogan declared two days before the arrests that he had uncovered evidence of a planned coup last year inspired by Mr. Gulen and his supporters. Mr. Erdogan talked darkly about a “parallel network that is commiting [sic] treason” and he has been threatening to root out the Gulen forces for much of this year. “We have gone into their lairs, and we will go into them again,” the Turkish president declared. In a related effort, an arrest warrant for Mr. Gulen was issued last week in Turkey.

The crisis was intensified by a corruption scandal that broke a year ago — again, Mr. Erdogan claims, inspired by his foes — that implicated many of those close to Mr. Erdogan, then prime minister. In the summer, he was elected president in the nation’s first popular vote for the office. Mr. Erdogan wants more power for the presidency, yet his bellicose behavior in the past year suggests he is taking Turkey in the wrong direction.

The rivalry with Mr. Gulen aside, Mr. Erdogan ignores a central premise of democracy: that it is strengthened, not weakened, by competition. The noisy news media are not carrying out some dark conspiracy and not participating in a palace coup, but they rather are a critical part of a functioning, healthy political system. Suffocate the news media, and Mr. Erdogan risks destroying all that Turkey should aspire to. Mr. Erdogan ought to reverse direction before driving off the cliff.

Read more from Opinions:

The Post’s View: Turkey needs to turn away from Mr. Erdogan’s repression

Morton Abramowitz, Eric Edelman and Blaise Misztal: The United States needs to tell Turkey to change course

Robert Orttung and Christopher Walker: Authoritarian regimes retool their media-control strategy

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GAZETECİLİK SUÇ DEĞİL; WASHİNGTON POST

Washington Post'tan Erdoğan'a: Gazetecilik suç değildir

Amerikan Washington Post gazetesi bugünkü başyazısında Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'a seslenerek, Türkiye'de hapisteki tüm gazetecileri serbest bırakmasını istedi.

Washington Post,

Cumhuriyet'in MİT TIR'ları ile ilgili haberi nedeniyle tutuklanan gazetenin Genel Yayın Yönetmeni Can Dündar ve Ankara Temsilcisi Erdem Gül'ün sadece gazetecilik faaliyetlerini yerine getirip, ifade özgürlüğü haklarını kullandıklarına dikkat çekti, "Bunlar suç değildir" dedi.

Gazetenin başyazısı, "Türkiye'de atlatma habere ömür boyu hapis istemi" başlığını taşıyor.

Washington Post, Türkiye'de gazetecilerin susturulmak istendiğini, bu yöndeki çabaların yanlış olduğunu vurguluyor.

"Türkiye Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Boğaziçi'nin despotu olma yolunda bir virajı daha döndü" diyen gazete, bu yorumuna gerekçe olarak Can Dündar ve Erdem Gül hakkında ayrı ayrı istenen bir kez ağırlaştırılmış müebbet, bir kez müebbet ve 30 yıla kadar hapis cezalarını gösteriyor.

Dündar ve Gül için istenen cezaları "şok edici" olarak nitelendiren Washington Post'un başyazısı şu satırlarla sürüyor:

"Bu cezalar, şiddet içeren suçlar için uygun olablir. Ancak bu örnekte değil... Türkiye Cumhurbaşkanı, gazeteciliği korkunç bir suç yapmakta kararlı görünüyor. Bu süreçte de bir NATO müttefiki olan Türkiye'yi demokrasiden daha da uzaklaştırıyor, otoriter rejim ve cahillik çukuruna yuvarlıyor."

JOE BİDEN'A ALKIŞ

Washington Post başyazısında, ABD Başkan Yardımcısı Joe Biden'ı da, Türkiye ziyareti sırasında Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan'la ilgili görüşmede medyaya, ifade özgürlüğüne ve internete yönelik kısıtlamalara ilişkin kaygılarını paylaştığı için alkışlıyor.

Başyazıda, ABD Dışişleri Bakanı John Kerry'nin, 28 Ocak'ta gazeteyi ziyaret ettiğinde sarfettiği şu sözler hatırlatılıyor:

"Özgür ve bağımsız basını olmayan bir ülkenin, kendini övme ve başkalarına birşey öğretme hakkı yoktur. Potansiyelini de hiçbir şekilde gösteremez.

"Gazetecileri yıldırmaya ya da hapsetmeye çalışanlara direnmeli, onlara gazetecilik faaliyetinin, doğruyu bildirmenin suç olmadığını yüksek sesle ve net şekilde söylemeliyiz. Bu bir onur nişanıdır, kamu hizmetidir."

Washington Post başyazısını şu satırlarla noktalıyor:

"Sayın Erdoğan, Cumhuriyet'ten iki gazeteci dahil, Türkiye'de hapisteki çok sayıda gazeteciyi serbest bırakmalıdır. Bu kişilerin yaptığı sadece gazetecilik faaliyetlerini yerine getirmek ve ifade özgürlüğü hakkını kullanmaktır. Bunlar da suç değildir."

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