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Protestors in Istanbul march in opposition to Erdogan. Photo: Emrah Oprukcu/NurPhoto

It has become normal for George Orwell to creep into political conversations in Turkey: the parallels are too numerous to resist.

A year on from a failed coup attempt, more than 150,000 people have been arrested, fired, or driven into self-imposed exile. The group President Erdogan accuses of orchestrating the revolt are the shadowy followers of an Islamic preacher called Fethullah Gulen. Turks are told that they act as if they are seculardrinking alcohol and wearing revealing clothesto cover their real pious identities. Consequently, anyone could find the finger of blame pointed at them. Being in possession of a one-dollar bill bearing a certain serial number has been enough to land some people in prison; for others, it was wearing a t-shirt printed with the word Hero (both are claimed to be secret signs that Gulens followers use to communicate between themselves). Book dumping became common as the crackdown hitno-one wants to be caught with one of Gulens tomes on their shelf.

Meanwhile, the justice system is in meltdown. More than 4,000 of those who have been purged are from the judiciary, slashing its manpower by a quarter at the exact moment that thousands of coup cases are beginning to move through the courts. Many of the 50,000 being held in prison are yet to find out exactly what they are accused of. In court, the prosecutions case is often just a chronology of all that happened on the night of the coup.

I travel to drab concrete neighbourhoods at the end of Istanbuls metro lines to meet the people caught up in the purge. They have often retreated into the shadows, shunned by friends and family members who either believe the accusations against them, or are scared of being tarred by association. They tell me their ways of coping; one woman, discharged from her job and now living in fear of arrest, has turned to God and started covering her head.

After my dismissal, I started to study the Koran again. Gulen people have the tendency to do this, but I dont care because the people dont care about me, she said. When I was first trying it [the headscarf] I tried different styles. I thought I looked too much like an AKP supporter (Erdogans ruling party). We all have prejudices.

Back in my central Istanbul neighbourhood, with its tattoo shops and small dogs and hipsters, the drinking and good times continue. Most Turks believe that the Gulenists were involved in the coup attemptthey had already spent years infiltrating Turkeys bureaucracy and security services. A decade ago, Erdogan and Gulen were allies (of sorts) and the government turned a blind eye to the groups growing power. The Gulenists used their positions to wiretap phones and pursue spurious cases against secular opponents and high-ranking military officers, and the government acquiesceduntil December 2013, when the relationship combusted.

That was the first time I heard of Fethullah Gulen: when the streets of my neighbourhood exploded into a riot of Molotov cocktails and tear gas. A police investigation had revealed a huge corruption scandal, involving the sons of Erdogan and three of his government ministers; gold deals and Iranian sanctions-busting. The state-owned Halk Bank was implicated, and its branches were smashed up in the protests. Graffiti covered the streets: Thieves everywhere, it read. It looked like the government might fallbut everyone knew that the scandal was not all it seemed. Within days, Erdogan had accused Gulen of orchestrating it, sacked hundreds of high-ranking police officers, and clung on to power by his fingernails.

Even during the height of the protests, those partaking knew what might happen.We fear that we may be seen as acting with the Gulenists, one young woman told me. Actually, we want the people of Turkey to have the power.

How prophetic, I think now as I look back on my notes from those protests, almost 4 years ago. Everyone knows that Erdogan and his party have questions to answer about their relationship with the Gulenists. But everyone has also learnt the rules. Dont criticise. Dont question. Keep quiet.

But there are people who refuse to keep quiet, and the government doesnt know what to do with them. Last week, 17 employees of theCumhuriyetnewspapera secular title staunch in its opposition to both Erdogan and Gulenwent on trial, accused of aiding terror groups including the Gulenists. The journalists in the dock included Ahmet Sik, an investigative reporter who has previously served a year in prison for his expose of the Gulenists back in 2011, before Erdogan started his war on the group. There is another loop in this Gordian knot: the prosecutor who brought the case againstCumhuriyetis now himself accused of links to the Gulenists.

Siks defence statement, on the third day of the trial, was a raging indictment of the government.

Now, they act as if they had nothing to do with the transformation of the Gulen movement, which was undeniably one of the parties involved in the bloody coup attempt, into a monster, he said. They want us to keep silent about their guilt and to not tell the truth. They are using the blood of the victims killed by the putschists as a demagogic part of a cheap and shallow political strategy. Becausethose who hold power in their hands have only one goal in mind: to continue their totalitarian rule no matter what.

The judge was due to deliver the verdict on Friday evening. Instead, he postponed it until September. Seven of theCumhuriyetdefendants were released on bail, but Sik remains in detentionand the prosecutor is bringing fresh charges against him for his defence statement.

Orwell would think it too far-fetched, a friend observed over dinner that evening.Turkeys pro-government press has said little about the trial. Perhaps even they realise it is pushing the boundaries of credibility.

Originally posted here:
In Erdogan's Turkey, the references to George Orwell are becoming more numerous - Prospect

US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (R) speaks at a press briefing with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the White House in Washington, DC, July 31, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trumps national security adviser, General H. R. McMaster, has awkwardly dodged a question about Washingtons dual policy regarding the recent political developments in Venezuela and Turkey.

On Monday, the US Treasury Department imposed new financial sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a day after the oil-rich nation cast their ballots on electing a new assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

During a White House press briefing about the new bans, a journalist asked McMaster whether there was a difference between what happened in Venezuela and a similar attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expand his constitutional powers a short while back.

President Trump congratulated President Erdogan on that and he even later came to the US and his people beat protesters in front of his embassy, the journalist said, referring to a brutal crackdown of anti-Erdogan protesters by the Turkish presidents bodyguards in Washington, DC, on May 17.

McMaster claimed that what happened in Venezuela amounted to an abrogation of the constitution but refused to answer the question about Turkey.

One difference is you see the end of the constitution of Venezuela, he said. And this is happening obviously at an accelerated pace in the recent months in the Maduro regime.

But this is a process that has taken really two regimes to really restrict Venezuelan democracy, he added.

Ignoring the journalist's calls to address Erdogans case, McMaster said the sanctions put Maduro in the same exclusive club as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and North Koreas leader Kim Jung-un.

In April, Ankara held a referendum on changes in the constitution, expanding the powers of Erdogan after 51 percent of voters voted Yes in what the opposition called a fraudulent election.

The European Union (EU) had warned Turkey that it should either cancel the proposed constitution overhaul or forfeit its request to join the bloc.

Trump, on the other hand, personally called his Turkish counterpart to congratulate him.

With regards to Venezuela, however, Trump had said before the Sunday election that he would not recognize its outcome.

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McMaster glosses over question comparing Erdogan to Maduro - Press TV

Just few days ago, a chilling footage in one of the international television stations brought to the fore the ugly memories of the July 15, 2016, aborted coup in Turkey. It was during the one years commemoration of the coup, which saw to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to rip the heads off of terror groups and plotters who tried to put an end to his more than a decade-long dictatorial rule.

More than 250 innocent Turks paid with their lives to ensure that Erdogan rule was not truncated by the coup plotters on that fateful July 15, 2016, while the President hibernated and disappeared into an unknown destination.

Like many autocratic leaders, Erdogan was quick to blame members of opposition and sympathizers of Gulen Movement for the coup attempt. He particularly singled out the United States-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen as the mastermind of the coup, even when it is on record that the highly-respected cleric publicly condemned the coup when it was still on.

Though the July 15 failed coup was not the first in that country, the many conspiratorial theories and the Turkish government heightened brutality aftermath of the coup has continued to tilt my belief that the coup was just a well-crafted master script which was activated by Erdogan to silence critics and any finger of opposition in Turkey. Yes, many leaders in the past have used phantom coups to consolidate their grip on power by jailing perceived political enemies and sometimes send them to the hangs man noose.

During the dark days of military regime in Nigeria in the mid-1990s, many influential figures like General Olusegun Obasanjo, who later became President, General Shehu YarAdua, and a host of other critics of government were all sent to jail over a coup that was believed to be designed to topple the government of late General Sani Abacha. Hence, the recent revelation by Sweden-based Stockholm Centre for Freedom (SCF) in on the Turkeys coup has further cemented my belief that some power-drunk leaders can go to any length to perpetrate themselves in office.

According to the international Centre, last years failed coup attempt in Turkey is nothing but a false flag orchestrated by Turkeys autocratic President Recep Tayip Erdogan and his henchmen to create a pretext for a mass persecution of critics and opponents in a state of perpetual emergency.

The centre in a new detailed study titled July 15:Erdogans Coup, said from available data, the coup indictments, testimonials in court trials, private interviews, reviews of military expert opinions and other evidence collected by researchers, it is fairly confident that this attempt did not even qualify a coup bid in any sense of military mobilization which was unusually limited in numbers, confined in few cities, poorly managed, defied the established practices, tradition, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures in Turkish military.

This was a continuation of a series of false flags that were uncovered in the last couple of years under the authoritarian rule of Erdogan regime and it was certainly the bloodiest one, the centre said.

Erdogan appears to have tapped on widely circulated coup rumours in Turkish capital and staged own show to steal wind and set up his opposition for a persecution, the President of SCF, Abdullah Bozkurt, was quoted to have said.

Judging by Erdogan antecedents on how he had blatantly used the term parallel state to badmouth and demonise sympathisers of the Gulen movement in Turkey but without getting the desired result of suppressing them, the coup could as well be the best bet and the smokescreen of his government to silence the group and other opposition elements. This was what played out during the referendum in Turkey which was carried out under the emergency power of the president. Erdogan won big time by securing imperial presidency, consolidating his gains, stifling the opposition and even launching cross border military incursion into Syria for which he had been itching for too long.

The Turkish president, who appear to have unquenchable penchant for brutalising and detaining those who dare have a different political orientation from the one shares by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), reportedly called the July 15, 2016 coup attempt as a gift from God, as he now wields absolute power to do and undo anything he wishes to the detriment of the freedom of the Turkish people.

Today in Turkey, most media organisations and private schools have been shut down, thousands of public servants kicked out from government service, thousands of judges, teachers, doctors, military officers all thrown out from work. Many more who are not so lucky, including journalists, members of opposition, among others are now in detention without trial for allegedly taking part in the coup with no any iota of concrete evidence linking them to it.

Erdogan may have succeeded in silencing his opponents by carefully reaping the political capital of the July 15 coup attempt, but surely, he cannot come clean of involvement in the coup no matter how black he would paint those he accused of being behind it.

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Turkey's Erdogan and July 15 coup - The Nation Newspaper

Erdogans remarks, delivered at a higher education conference in Ankara, follow a million-strong protest by the nations secularist opposition, which enjoys greater support among the younger, more educated Turks.

This situation is definitely affected by reasons like not being able to give up on the life standards they got used to. But I believe that we, as heads of states, need to think of the real reasons that distance our youth from ourselves, Erdoan told the audience, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.We need to carry measures that will prevent this brain drain, which is causing our science world to become a desert, into effect as soon as possible.

Brain drain is a term used to describe mass migration of highly educated people out of developing and undeveloped countries into the free world, in many cases the United States. Educated citizens flee the country seeking a better quality of life elsewhere, but in doing so diminish the population of educated citizens who can contribute to the further development of their home economies.

On top of that, we are transferring very serious amounts of money to Western countries for this. After these students complete their academic studies, we naturally expect them to return to their countries and serve their own people, he continued. But most of the time, those finishing their schools do not return to their homelands, but stay where they received education.

Erdogan curiously did not blame those emigrating for the phenomenon, instead urging Muslim governments and social institutions to give these individuals reasons to stay. Like in every society in the Muslim world, we stay away from issues that demand endeavor and patience, he claimed. If we are unsuccessful in raising a generation that asks, questions, and has ambitions for the future, a generation running after temporary whims emerges.

The most important responsibility falls on the shoulders of our universities. Universities are the production centers of science and unique and free thoughts. Every kind of idea that is not contaminated with terror and that does not encourage violence has a place and should have a place in the university, he concluded.

Erdogan had previously praised growing Muslim populations in Europe.From here I say to my citizens, I say to my brothers and sisters in Europe. Educate your children at better schools, make sure your family live in better areas, drive in the best cars, live in the best houses,he said in a speech in March. Have five children, not three. You are Europes future.

Erdogan has referred to the use of birth control by Turkish citizens as treason, while accusing Europe of drowning in its own fears of Muslims.

With these repeated demands to socially engineer the lives of Muslims, Erdogan has developed an image as a ruler seeking moral authority in the Muslim world. This week he added to that, demanding that the worlds Muslims storm Jerusalems Temple Mount, which led IsraeliForeign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon to reply, thedays of the Ottoman Empire are over.

A major hurdle to Erdogans aspirations become an Islamist moral authority is the fact that the Turkish populationparticularly younger andmore highly-educated Turks, the people he warns are moving to the Westare largely secular and have rejected Erdogans Islamist agenda.

The trend is not new. A 2014 study by the London School of Economics found a strong correlation between support for Erdogans Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and lower education levels. Conversely, supporters of the secularist Republican Peoples Party (CHP)the party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatrktended to be more educated than their peers.

A year later, a Pew study found that younger, more educated Turks, followers of the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and less devout Muslims are more disillusioned with the state of democracy under Erdogan than their more pious, less educated peers, and more likely to oppose Erdogan generally. Meanwhile, Erdogans supporters include AKP followers (87% favorable), Turks ages 50 and older (54%), lower educated Turks (53%) and Muslim Turks who pray 5 times per day or more (71%).

The CHP appeared to prove this remains the casetwo years, one failed coup, and one referendum to expand Erdogans powers laterwith a rally this month that ended a march from Ankara to Istanbul meant to protest the mass arrests of civil workers, politicians, police officers, and soldiers following the failed coup. The rally featured a speech by CHP head Kemal Kilicdaroglu in which he referred to Turkey as a dictatorship. The CHP claimed the Justice March attracted one million people.

Erdogans Islamist quest has also resulted in severely distorted school curricula that team Islamic supremacy, significantly damaging the quality of Turkish education. In February, the Turkish ministry of education unveiled a new education curriculum that greatly increased Quranic and Islamic studies while removing the teaching of evolution, replacing Western scientists with Muslim ones, and limiting exposure to the ideas of the nations highly secular founding fathers. If this trend continues, educated Turks may increasingly find a home in the AKP, but only at the expense of a proper secular educationthe kind that the Turkish economy needs them to have.

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Erdogan: Turkish Universities Need to Stop Muslim 'Brain ...

Jared Kushner at an event with Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou in Washington, July 26, 2017. JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS

A Turkish reporter admitted that he fabricated a quote by Jared Kushner in which President Donald Trumps son-in-law and adviser reportedly said Turkish President Recep Erdogan is making Turkey great again like [the] U.S. We watch his efforts with appreciation.

Yavuz Atalay, a reporter for the newspaper AKSAM, told The Daily Caller Thursday that he made up the quote.

In a private Twitter exchange with The Daily Caller, Atalay said he spoke with Kushner for less than two minutes.

He did not say that, Atalay wrote of the quote in question. I asked him, Do you think, Erdogan is making Turkey great again, like Trump? and he only said, Yeah, I think so.

The White House did not respond to a follow-up question about the interview. A selfie with Kushner and the reporter accompanies the article.

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Atalay has a history of exaggerating the Trump administrations view of Erdogan and the Turkish government, according to The Daily Caller.

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Turkish Reporter Says He Made Up Jared Kushner Quote Praising Erdogan - Haaretz