AKP’s criminal coalition by Emre Uslu

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power by forming a “democracy coalition.” But it now appears that the ruling party is intent on carrying through its third term riding on the shoulders of a criminal coalition. Back in the days of the democracy coalition, the ruling party directed its supporters towards democracy, pushing them to embrace democracy more tightly. But now that the AKP has turned into a criminal coalition, the party's supporters have suppressed their own feelings of guilt, gathered around the party and thus turning into dirty supporters of the party.

Washington Post: "The news media crackdown in Turkey threatens democracy"

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.

Source - Washington Post Editorial Board:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-news-media-crackdown-in-turkey-threatens-democracy/2014/12/21/55a0e4ee-84a3-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html?postshare=5111419260376198

Erdoğan’s fear by Ihsan Yilmaz

by Ihsan Yilmaz - I am extremely bored of the fact that we have to keep writing about Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Nevertheless, since he has unfortunately created a party state without effective checks and balances, in this one-man regime, he is the single-most influential decision maker. Thus, whatever he does negatively influences and harms the whole nation. We are not in a position to ignore this fact or talk about some other issues just because we are bored and fed up with Erdoğan.

In the past, we, including myself, were not responsive enough to prevent Turkey from gradually descending into a one-man regime and even unintentionally helped him create such a system since we did not criticize him timely, properly, harshly and frequently enough. Maybe this is a spiritual punishment that we have to suffer. I made an apology at the beginning of the year for all these mistakes of mine, including my failure to object to the arrests of journalists.

Read full article at http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/ihsan-yilmaz/erdogans-fear_367486.html

Turkey media arrests pure 'political vengeance'

By Ruth Pollard - The timing of the arrests could not have been more pointed, punishing segments of Turkey's media for exposing a bruising government corruption scandal and attempting to silence any further revelations.

Just days before the first anniversary of the December 17 bribery and fraud investigation that rocked the Erdogan government, at least 23 journalists, scriptwriters, directors and police officers were publicly rounded up and detained, accused of being members of a terrorist organisation conspiring against Turkey.

 

It was, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an act of pure "political vengeance". Others described it as "another Turkish witch-hunt" in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan exacted revenge on his political opponents.

Turkish author and columnist Mustafa Akol summed up the mood in the country following the arrests, tweeting on Thursday: "Honestly, Turkey is basically a madhouse where similarly paranoid and hateful groups demonise and imprison each other in turns."

Read full story at  http://www.smh.com.au/world/turkey-media-arrests-pure-political-vengeance-20141220-128ysd.html

NYT: #Turkey’s Descent Into Paranoia #FreeMediaCannotBeSilenced

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says mass arrests on Dec. 14 of journalists, screenwriters and television producers were necessary to eliminate agents of a “parallel state” bent on seizing power. But Mr. Erdogan’s efforts to stifle criticism and dissent show an authoritarian leader living in a parallel universe, one where being a democracy, a NATO ally and a candidate for membership in the European Union are somehow compatible with upending the rule of law and stifling freedom of expression.

The arrests closely follow wild accusations that the acclaimed Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak are puppets of a mysterious “international literature lobby” dedicated to discrediting Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P. The authors have been subjected to a social-media smear campaign labeling them as “projects” used by the West to slander Mr. Erdogan and his party.

Last February, Mr. Erdogan’s government pushed through new laws severely restricting Internet freedom and curbing the independence of Turkey’s judiciary in response to a corruption scandal that rocked the government last December. The timing of the mass arrests coincides with the one-year anniversary of the scandal, and appears designed to prevent last year’s revelations from being revisited in public. Most of the arrested journalists work for the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group and the newspaper Zaman, both affiliated with Fethullah Gulen, a political rival of Mr. Erdogan.

’Arrest warrant for #FethullahGulen to damage #Turkey’s reputation in the world’

Alliance for Shared Values, a non-profit group that serves as a voice for dialogue organizations affiliated with the Hizmet in the US has released a press statement about an arrest warrant issued by a Turkish court for Fethullah Gülen, saying it will damage Turkey’s reputation in the world.

The statement said with its latest action, the Turkish government has abandoned all sensibilities and crossed important ethical and moral boundaries.

“While not unexpected, it is deeply disappointing to see the government openly abuse its power in order to ensure that it maintains absolute control over its citizens,” the statement said.

“Instead of recognizing Mr. Gülen for his decades of selfless service in peacefully promoting democracy, education and dialogue, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan government is using false charges to oppress and harass its own people,” it added.

Turkish Leader Erdogan's Misstep in NYC

By  Stephen Schlesinger - The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has a problem. Through his battles at home in recent years to ward off criminal investigations of his administration, his insistence on dismissing wiretaps that show he and his aides involved in backroom threats against opponents, his decision to fire or imprison police and judicial officials whom he thinks are influenced by an overseas foe, his willingness to crush demonstrators who oppose his willful rehabbing of downtown Istanbul and his crackdown on journalists, he is getting a reputation as a mistrusting, authoritarian and sometimes paranoid leader -- despite his recent election to the top office in his country.

His appearance today before the august Council on Foreign Relations in New York City did nothing to allay those concerns. In a speech that was supposedly aimed at promoting Turkey's interests, Erdogan came off as a defensive and suspicious man, who sees conspiracies everywhere and feels misunderstood by everybody and thinks he is threatened from all sides. Here is a list of the central points he made in his address at the afternoon session at the Council:

Why didn't they listen to Erdogan?

by Aydogan Vatandas - President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become an international figure; it is probably the first time so many people outside Turkey know the name of the country's president since the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey.

However, during his UN summit speech yesterday, many of the seats in the hall were empty, and it is safe to say that Erdoğan spoke only to a small group of listeners.

The main reason for this shift is the fact that Erdoğan has already lost his credibility in the world even though he still has some support on the ground in Turkey. The last two elections in Turkey can be considered an indication that he still has the support of the majority of Turkish voters even though he has already made the country less democratic and openly vows to continue this process.

Erdoğan verbally attacks top state figures for critical comments

Photo Credit: Today's Zaman

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted the Chief of General Staff, Gen. Necdet Özel, President of the Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç and the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Ali Alkan, criticizing them for their comments expressing concerns about the government's recent policies on domestic issues, a media report has said.

According to the Hürriyet daily, on Thursday, while en route to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit being held on Sept. 4 and 5, Erdoğan responded to questions from several journalists who had been invited to accompany him during his flight, excoriating the three figures for their critical attitudes.
Erdoğan reportedly first targeted Özel, who previously said that the military was not given any solid evidence regarding allegations that the military has been infiltrated by the “parallel state,” a term President Erdoğan uses to refer to alleged members of the faith-based Hizmet movement within the state bureaucracy who he believes aim to topple him, saying: "If there are anonymous letters concerning the acts of the 'parallel structure' then first examine them. If you find any solid evidence on the matter, then you may launch a legal procedure. If you cannot find anything, then you throw it away.”

Erdoğan spends vacation in controversial Urla villas

Prime Minister and President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family have been on vacation recently in their controversial villas in the Urla district of İzmir province that were allegedly built in an environmentally protected zone, according to the Hürriyet daily.

Erdogan names loyal ally Davutoglu as new Turkey PM

 

Credit: AFP Photo/Adem Altan

Turkey's president-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday named Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to succeed him as ruling party leader and prime minister, promoting an ally who is expected to show unstinting loyalty to the new head of state.

Erdogan -- who has dominated Turkey's political scene for 11 years as prime minister -- is to be inaugurated as president next week after his election victory earlier this month.

Erdoğan uses 'fake' license plate to avoid election ban, daily says

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan allegedly placed another car's license plate on his official car in order to be able to continue using his car during the presidential election campaign and avoid an election ban that prohibits public officials from making use of public resources during an election campaign, a Turkish daily claimed on Friday.

Report on tapes prepared outside but signed by TÜBİTAK

Experts have strongly criticized a report by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) stating that a voice recording between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son Bilal suggesting that the two were attempting to hide unknown amounts of cash in their family home was a "montage,” saying the report was far from scientific and is instead politically motivated.