Mediaboss Marketing

Istanbul prosecutors launched an investigation into the Hurriyet front page story on Saturday which suggested that the army was not satisfied with the recent actions by the government.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that a Turkish newspaper would pay a "price" after a contentious report over alleged tensions between his government and the army.

Istanbul prosecutors launched an investigation into the Hurriyet front page story on Saturday which suggested that the army was not satisfied with the recent actions by the government.

The story listed seven grievances including the lifting of a historic ban on female officers wearing the Islamic headscarf in the officially secular country.

"Let me put it very clearly, what's done here, the headline they have used is insolent," Erdogan told reporters at an Istanbul airport before leaving for Pakistan on an official visit.

Erdogan said nobody had the right to set the army against the government and warned: "Whoever tries to set us against one another will pay a price."

"No offence but I don't find such an approach forgivable at a time when we need unity, fraternity and solidarity more than ever," he added.

Erdogan said he discussed the issue with Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar on Monday.

The government increased control over the armed forces in the wake of an attempted coup in July last year blamed on followers of preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The Hurriyet newspaper, the flagship daily of Dogan Media Group -- the Turkish media giant which owns television channels Kanal D and CNN-Turk -- is a mainstream daily but houses pro-government columnists as well.

'Coup mongering'

The story headlined "the army headquarters are uneasy", based on military sources, carried the byline of Hurriyet's Ankara bureau chief Hande Firat.

Firat, one of Turkey's most prominent journalists, was fiercely condemned by pro-government media for "coup mongering".

Ironically, Firat played a crucial role in defeating the July 15 coup when she spoke to Erdogan live on her CNN-Turk show by FaceTime on the night of the putsch.

Erdogan used the interview to rally his supporters, calling them into the streets to resist the attempted power-grab.

An Istanbul prosecutor's office on Monday launched an investigation into whether there was a pro-coup faction within the military that was trying to block the government's actions, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The army on Tuesday dismissed "baseless and intentional criticism" in the Hurriyet story, which it said was a "distortion" aimed at harming the armed forces at a time when it is fighting terror at home and in Syria.

Appearing on CNN-Turk, Firat said the critics had not read her story properly, adding that Hurriyet had sought comment from the military chief of staff.

"We, as Hurriyet newspaper and Dogan Group, will continue to defend democracy," she said.

Erdogan defended the lifting of the headscarf ban in the army and said women would enjoy their freedom.

"In the following process our victimised, oppressed sisters will take their place in all institutions" from the judiciary to the education sector, he said.

Link:
Erdogan says paper to pay 'price' over controversial report - New Vision

Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the arrest of a German reporter in Turkey as excessively harsh, risking tension with President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan as she counts on him to stem refugee flows to Europe.

The most important business stories of the day.

Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter.

Merkels comments on the arrest of Deniz Yucel, a correspondent for German newspaper Die Welt, brings her previously muted criticism of Turkeys record on media freedom and human rights out into the open. As she runs for a fourth term as German chancellor, Merkel is under pressure to take a stand on Turkey while depending on a European Union refugee accord with Turkey thats cut the influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East.

This measure is disproportionately harsh, Merkel said of Yucels arrest in a statement issued in Berlin late Monday. Its bitter and disappointing, particularly since the reporter turned himself in to Turkish police, she said.

Yucel, 43, was detained on Feb. 14 for reporting on e-mails published by the Redhack hacking group from the account of Erdogans son-in-law Berat Albayrak,Turkeys energy minister. Authorities have now placed him under arrest on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda, Turkish media group P24 reported.

While German politicians have regularly raised concern about Erdogans crackdown following a quashed coup last year and human rights groups have pressed Merkel to raise the matter with Erdogan, the arrest of the German-Turkish citizen provoked outrage.

This doesnt lead one to expect fair proceedings governed by the rule of law, Deputy Finance Minister Jens Spahn, a member of Merkels Christian Democratic Union, said in a ZDF television interview Tuesday. We have to criticize this -- precisely because Turkey is a partner, including in NATO.

Axel Springer SE Chief Executive Office Mathias Doepfner, whose company publishes Die Welt, criticized Erdogan in a column in the newspaper headlined We are Deniz, saying the Turkish presidents practices are part of a global campaign of intimidation against intellectual freedoms. He also cited governments in Russia, China, Hungary, Poland and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Some of the e-mails cited by Yucel concerned the control of Turkish media groups and efforts to influence public opinion through fake users on Twitter Inc.s messaging platform.According to Die Welt, the e-mails have been accessible on WikiLeaks since early December. Under Turkeys state of emergency, suspects can be detained for up to 14 days without appearing before a judge.

A resurgent Social Democratic Party under Martin Schulz and a public backlash against the biggest influx of refugees since World War II are key threats to Merkels re-election. An estimated 280,000 asylum seekers entered Germany last year, compared with 890,000 in 2015. Merkels government credits the EU-Turkey accord last March, which includes as much as 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion) in European aid for Turkey, with helping slash the influx.

Read more:
Merkel Risks Tension With Erdogan Over Turkish Reporter's Arrest - Bloomberg

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan. Photo: Wikipedia.

For some Americans, concerns about Russian spying and interference in ourelections are growing, with new reports emerging nearly every day. But in Europe, officials are fighting off an even greater incursion from another country: Turkey.

Recent investigations and leaks in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands confirm ongoing efforts by Turkeys government to intimidate European-Turkish citizens suspected of having ties to Fethullah Gulen, President Recep Tayyip Erdogans one-time ally, whom he now blames for the failed coup against him last July.

Imams in Germany connected to the Turkish state, for instance, haveadmitted to spyingon teachers in German state-run schools. Teachers and parents have also been asked to spy on classes, andreport in any criticismof Erdogan or his government. In Austria, parliamentarian Peter Pilz has said there isa global spying network, with Turkish-Islamic groupssending reportson Gulen-tied organizations back to Ankara. Targets have included educational institutions, cultural centers and various NGOs. In the Netherlands, the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam hasrevoked the passportsof several Dutch-Turks thought to support Gulen. (Turkey maintains consular offices in several Dutch cities; to date, reports of passports being revoked are limited to the Rotterdam office.)

February 28, 2017 6:06 pm

Erdogans involvement in European affairs beyond Turkeys borders is nothing new. In 2008, while speaking at a rally in Cologne, Germany, he encouraged all European Turks toresist assimilation, which he called a crime against humanity. In 2013, heinterferedin a child abuse case against a Dutch-Turkish mother, when the child was given over to lesbian foster parents. And last year, he called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel toprosecute a German comedianwho had written a song critical of him.

But the latest efforts indicate an even greater bravado, says Elise Steilberg, a Dutch columnist who frequently writes on Turkish politics. The clearer it has become that Erdogan aims at a one-man-rule, and that in working toward his goal of constitutional change he wont hesitate to use unconventional means, the more obvious it has also become that he will do anything to get as many European Turks behind him as possible, she said in a recent email. Erdogan is now openly using all available channels to increase his influence within Europe.

The Dutch passport situation is a salient example of this effort. Both dual Dutch-Turkish citizens and Turkish citizens with residency permits have reported that their passports were confiscated at the Rotterdam office. In each case, they were said to have ties to Gulen, to Kurdish groups, or to journalists and others critical of the Turkish government.

For dual citizens, this is bad enough, but those with only Turkish citizenship are rendered stateless by such a move.Some have arguedthat this action represents a flagrant violation of United Nations conventions, but Turkey is not a signatory to those conventions.

There is, however, an option offered to those whose passports are revoked, reports Dutch newspaperTrouw, which first broke the story. To obtain a replacement, they must travelto Turkey. On arrival, they areheld in custody, effectively imprisoned, until they can plead their case in court a process that can take six months. In one particularly disturbing case described inTrouw, a Turkish woman was forced to relinquish her passport because her husband is a Gulenist. She is not.

But Ankara has not stopped at the door of its consulates. With Dutch elections set forMarch 15, Turkey isallegedly paying imamsin the Netherlands to urge Dutch-Turks to vote for the anti-integration Denk (Think) party, led by Tunahan Kuzu and Seluk Ozturk, both of whom are Turkish-born. Among Denks objectives: a culture of acceptance rather than integration, the creation of a racism register, and the formation of a racism police. Inan interviewwithElsevier,Dutch Turkish Council Director Sefa Yurukel described the vote Denk messages distributed by the imams as containing the typical arguments of Islamists. Further, he said that Denk likely enjoys support from the Diyanet, a Turkish government body that oversees religious affairs in Turkey and among the Turkish people worldwide.

It is just that sort of effort to monitor and manipulate the behavior of Turkish citizens, even those who do not live in Turkey, that has Steilberg most concerned. While of course all countries spy on one another, she says, the idea of civilians spying on civilians is especially chilling.

Already the Dutch have experienced some of the worst of this, as when Twitter users in the Netherlandsreported the anti-Erdogan tweetsof Dutch-Turkish columnist Ebru Umar. Umar, who was in Turkey at the time, was immediately arrested, and was not permitted to return to the Netherlands for several weeks. She was eventually released only thanks to the intervention of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

As such government intervention becomes increasingly intertwined with religious manipulation and intrigue, the reaches of Turkeys growing theocracy into European culture seems an imminent, and ever-expanding, threat.

More:
Erdogan Critics Beware: Turkey Is Watching - Algemeiner

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday in Istanbul before departing for Pakistan that Turkey is willing to launch an operation to take the ISIS capital of Raqqa if it had the support of Russia and the US-led coalition.

We are about to wrap up the discussion of the al-Bab operation. After that, we have Raqqa on the agenda, provided we come to understanding with Russia, the international coalition, the US. In this case, we will consider Raqqa and Manbij, he said.

Erdogan also said that in the current situation, Turkey places much importance on talks with Russia, which is a country close to Turkey, as well as on contacts with our strategic allies, the coalition and the US.

Advertisement

Taking the present situation into account, cooperation with these countries in Syria is very important for us, he added. The Turkish president then explained his exchange with the countrys Chief of General Staff General Hulusi Akar.

The main thing that we discussed was concluding the operation in al-Bab. We also exchanged views on our contacts with the US and Russia on these matters and what prospects there are. But the fact that the al-Bab operation has almost concluded does not mean that the work (in Syria) is done, Erdogan said.

He also stressed that Turkey does not plan to remain in Syria after the Euphrates Shield operation was over.

ALSO READ Identity of those responsible for Homs terrorist attack revealed

Advertisement

Originally posted here:
Erdogan says Turkey is ready to 'liberate' Raqqa from ISIS - AMN Al-Masdar News (registration)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) meets Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif (R) in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 28, 2017. ( Kayhan zer - Anadolu Agency )

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday evening to attend the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit, state-run Pakistan Television said.

The live broadcast showed Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal receive Erdogan at the Noor Khan air base following a 21-gun salute. First Lady Emine Erdogan also accompanied the president.

The summit will open Wednesday.

Erdogan was also presented with a guard of honor by a contingent from the Pakistani armed forces. He is due to meet heads of states and representatives from ECO member states on the sidelines of the summit.

He later met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan separately.

Leaders from Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are attending the summit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria told Anadolu Agency.

The ECO was established in 1985 by Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan. It succeeded the Regional Cooperation for Development, which was founded in 1964 to promote cooperation among member states.

In 1992, the organization had welcomed seven new members: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.

The Treaty of Izmir, signed in 1977 and subsequently amended in 1996, was the groups legal foundation.

Following Erdogan's arrival, the ECO Council of Ministers issued a statement on the adoption of ECO Vision 2025, which will serve as a guideline for the organizations medium-term strategy.

Read more from the original source:
Erdogan arrives in Pakistan to attend economic summit - Anadolu Agency