Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Erdogan's Thin Skin


A couple of weeks ago German public television broadcast a short song called "Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan".  At barely two minutes the songs ridicules Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his treatment of journalists, his spending habits, his crackdown on civil liberties.  Erdogan, known for his papier-māché-like skin, called Germany’s ambassador on the carpet about the video.  The Turkish Foreign Ministry demanded the Germans take the offending video off the air.  What does this video say that offended Erdogan?  Well…

He’s living in grand style
Big Boss from Bosporus
A showy place with a thousand rooms
Built without permit in a nature preserve
Press freedom gives him a swollen neck
That’s why he needs all those scarves
When a journalist writes a piece
That Erdogan doesn’t like
He quickly ends up in jail
Newspaper offices closed down
He doesn’t think twice
With tear gas and water cannons he is riding through the night
Be nice to him
Since he’s holding all the cards
Erdo-how, Erdo-where, Erdogan
The time is ripe
For his Great Ottoman Empire
Erdo-how, Erdo-where, Erdogan
Equal rights for women
Beaten up equally
“If the election results are off
He’ll shake them into place
He loathes the Kurds
And much rather bomb them
Than his brothers in faith over at ISIL
Hand him your money
He’ll build you a refugee tent
Erdo-how, Erdo-where, Erdogan
His country is ripe
For EU membership
He doesn’t care for democracy
Erdogan says goodbye
And rides off into the sunset 

The “cards” alluded to in song are Syrian refugees, many thousands of whom Erdogan will gladly let into Europe if he doesn’t get his way on things.  These refugees [for lack of a better word] are giving European leaders a headache, especially Angela Merkel.  Merkel’s popularity has dropped like a rock since she started admitting a lot of these “refugees” into Germany.  Subsequent to the song airing on German TV, German comedian Jan Böhmermann recited a brief poem on TV that skewered Erdogan, his sexual habits, his treatment of Kurds and Christians.  This really upset Erdogan, who demanded Germany prosecute Böhmermann for “insulting” Erdogan.  Using an archane law against insulting foreign leaders that’s been on the books since the times of Bismarck, Merkel’s government gave the German prosecutors permission to open an investigation into Böhmermann’s act.  Last week, a Dutch journalist of Turkish descent who in a tweet criticized Erdogan for being a dictator is being prevented from leaving Turkey by the authorities.  What makes Erdogan such a target of scorn? 
 
In Erdogan’s view, any criticism of his government is a “personal attack”.  Since he became president, he’s filed over 1,800 lawsuits against Turks who’ve “insulted” him.  He uses the Turkish court system to stifle dissent.  Reporters Without Borders has in its 2015 World Press Freedom Index ranked Turkey as 149 out of 180 countries.  Dozens of journalists perceived as critical of the government have lost their jobs as officials have put pressure on their bosses.  In October 2015, Turkish police raided the offices of the Koza Ipek Media Group, which owned two newspapers and two TV stations. The court-appointed trustees have just closed both the TV stations and the newspapers.  Ahead of last November’s elections last year, a mob with alleged connections to the youth branch of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) attacked the offices of Dogan Media Group in Istanbul in September, which houses the secular daily Hürriyet, its English-language edition Hürriyet Daily News and another daily Radikal.
 

The Turkish government seized Zaman, the country’s most widely circulated newspaper.  Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric affiliated with the newspaper, was once an ally of Erdogan’s but is now a bitter enemy.  Gulan [who wields influence within the Turkish police and judiciary] and his followers were accused by Erdogan as being behind an investigation into corruption by members of Erdogan’s inner circle [to include Erdogan’s son].  The Gulen movement has been accused of being a terrorist organization that is plotting a coup. Its members have been subject to arrests, intimidation and court cases, while Mr. Erdogan has seemingly become more powerful.  Recently Turkish authorities briefly jailed 27 academic scholars who had signed a petition urging the Turkish government to end what they called the “deliberate massacre” of Kurds caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.   Erdogan’s government has used the conflict with the PKK as a pretext for arresting journalists, saying they “assist terrorist organizations”. 

Dissenting views are suppressed and the media is gradually being placed under government control. 

 

Does the EU really want this guy?

 



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