by Emre Uslu - Political madness in Turkey is at its peak. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not even refrain from using the term “witch hunt” against the Gülen followers. When Erdoğan and his circle don't find any evidence, they allegedly try to produce evidence. Bureaucrats who don't want to be part of Erdoğan's witch hunt have sent letters to the media and prosecutors confessing what they are doing. Unfortunately, what they said in those letters has been confirmed by later developments.
Although it was presented as if this hunt is only against the Gülen movement, the reality on the ground tells otherwise. When they think it is appropriate to include Justice and Development Party (AKP) opposition who have nothing to do with Gülenists, they label them as Gülenists and remove from their posts.
The first aim of the witch hunters is to punish those who conduct operations against the corrupt AKP members. For instance, they fired the police chiefs who conducted the corruption operations. They didn't even bother to follow the standard procedures when they fired them.
They have hired social media trolls to launch a smear campaign against those who criticize the government. They have employed an army of journalists to produce lies on a daily basis to continue the smear campaign against the opposition.
Against this smear campaign culture generated by the government and its media outlets, people naturally become radicalized. It seems the government deliberately wants the targeted groups to become radicalized, which would make the government conduct the much-desired witch-hunt more easily should those groups get involved in criminal activities.
It seems that Gülen followers are well aware of this objective of the government. They have issued warnings to their followers to keep them calm and never get involved in any wrongdoings.
Read full article at Today's Zaman: Witch hunt in Europe
No comments:
Post a Comment