Archive for the ‘Erdogan’ Category

Turkey’s Erdogan says ‘journalists commit crimes, too’ – Christian Science Monitor

July 12, 2017 Athens, GreeceA satirical cover for a political news magazine was all it took to see its editor eventually sentenced to more than two decades in prison.

Cevheri Guven, editor in chief of Turkey's Nokta magazine, fled while out on bail late last year, smuggling his family out of a country he says is rapidly descending toward all-out dictatorship. He took refuge in Greece, where he applied for political asylum.

Mr. Guven is far from alone in feeling the full force of the Turkish government's wrath against press critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, particularly after last year's failed coup attempt. About 160 journalists are currently in jail, mostly on terrorism-related charges, while more than 150 media outlets, from broadcasters to newspapers and magazines, have been shut down, leaving thousands unemployed.

Mr. Erdogan bristles at accusations he is muzzling the press, saying authorities are simply rooting out criminals. He disputes figures from rights groups about the number of imprisoned journalists.

"There can be no question of limitless freedoms in the press. If the media abuses all kinds of freedoms to cause turmoil in the country or to cause provocations, then there is the judiciary for them, too," he said Wednesday, addressing foreign investor representatives in Istanbul. "The judiciary will work for them, too. Nowhere in the world can there be limitless freedoms. The West does the same to freedoms and its media members."

Asked at the end of last week's G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, about the media situation, Erdogan again insisted that those arrested had been detained for criminal activity.

"Journalists commit crimes, too, and when they do the judiciary makes the necessary assessment," he said. "I want you to know that those you know as being members of the press are mostly people who aided and abetted terror."

Pressure on Turkey's media is nothing new. Ranked 155th out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, Turkey fared only marginally worse than it had the previous year, when it was ranked at 151. Some journalists in prison today have been there for years.

"Turkey is the world leader in jailing journalists and has decimated the independent print media and cracked down heavily on news websites and social media," said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director for Human Rights Watch. Most of the journalists now imprisoned "have not yet been convicted of any crime but face trumped-up terrorism charges," she said.

Rights groups have criticized Turkey for decades for imprisoning journalists. The country has seen at least three coups, in 1960, 1971, and 1980, each leading to regimes that restricted the media in various ways. Guven's own troubles started with a September 2015 magazine cover, long before last year's July 15 coup attempt.

But, he says, the coup aftermath, with its state of emergency granting authorities sweeping powers, has plunged the country to new lows.

"There have been [bad times] in Turkey, in the junta years," Guven said, speaking through a translator from his temporary home in Greece. "But now is the worst time for journalists."

He says some of his colleagues have been released from detention by court order, only to be re-arrested outside the prison gates. Others are held in isolation, and are threatened with life sentences.

"This shows that there is no chance for journalists to be free in Turkey," he said. Guven himself has been sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for a variety of terrorist-related crimes, including making propaganda for both the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, two groups that are hostile to each other. Erdogan blames Mr. Gulen, a former ally living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, for the coup.

The situation in Turkey, Guven said, "is obviously" going toward a dictatorship.

Rights groups say critical reporting has been all but silenced by the detentions and sackings, which have included the editor and top staff at Turkey's most respected opposition newspaper, Cumhuriyet.

"The crackdown on the media is not only about censoring critical reporting," said HRW's Sinclair-Webb, "but about preventing scrutiny of government policies and of the deeply repressive measures taken under the ongoing state of emergency."

For Guven, serious problems began with Nokta's satirical cover in September 2015 depicting a smiling Erdogan taking a selfie in front of a Turkish soldier's flag-draped coffin. It was strong criticism of the president's reported comments that soldiers killed fighting Kurdish militants would be happy for their martyrdom.

The result: Distribution of the magazine was banned and police raided its offices, accusing its leadership of insulting the president. In May, Guven's colleague Murat Capan was caught trying to flee to Greece and has been imprisoned in Turkey, also on a 22.5-year sentence. Greek media said Mr. Capan had made it across the Greek border but was pushed back into Turkey, where authorities detained him. The Greek government denies pushing back asylum seekers.

Activists say the media crackdown has fostered a climate of fear which has led to self-censorship.

"The fact that there are journalists in jail is not the only proof of the lack of press freedoms in Turkey. The censorship and self-censorship imposed on media organs also remove press freedoms," Gokhan Durmus, head of the Turkish Journalists' Syndicate, said in a speech on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. "In our country, which is governed under a state of emergency, journalism is being destroyed. They are trying to create a media with one voice, a Turkey with one voice."

The purge has affected almost every sector of Turkey's professional classes, from the judiciary and military to academia, hospitals, kindergartens, businesses, and diplomats. Human rights activists, including members of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have been among the latest wave of detentions.

Anyone deemed to be linked to Gulen's network of schools, charities, and businesses has fallen under suspicion. About 150,000 people have been detained, one-third of them formally arrested; more than 100,000 have been fired, sometimes for links as tenuous as using a particular bank.

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Turkey's Erdogan says 'journalists commit crimes, too' - Christian Science Monitor

President Erdogan tells BBC: EU wastes Turkey’s time – BBC News


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President Erdogan tells BBC: EU wastes Turkey's time
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Turkey will find it "comforting" if the EU says it cannot be accepted as a member, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told the BBC. Speaking to HARDtalk's Zeinab Badawi, he said Turkey was "able to stand on its own two feet". He also denied that the ...

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President Erdogan tells BBC: EU wastes Turkey's time - BBC News

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkish President could face arrest in Sweden over ‘genocide’ lawsuit – The Independent

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkish President could face arrest in Sweden over 'genocide' lawsuit - The Independent

‘March for Justice’ Ends in Istanbul With a Pointed Challenge to Erdogan – New York Times

Despite their differences, however, the government and opposition leaders appeared to be taking great pains to prevent a major confrontation as the march reached its culmination. The rally on Sunday could have easily been prohibited under the state of emergency that has been in force since the coup attempt. Large numbers of police officers escorted the marchers but did not interfere.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters arrived in Istanbul for the end of the three-week March for Justice. Led by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the main opposition party, they protested the government's recent crackdown on dissenters.

In a symbolic gesture, but also perhaps in an effort to manage the crowds, Mr. Kilicdaroglu walked the last two miles to the rally on his own. A former civil servant, Mr. Kilicdaroglu, 69, has captured the imagination of many supporters with his mild manner and his insistence on a peaceful march, in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi.

This is not an anti-government protest, Samet Akten, communications director for the march, said in a statement on Sunday. It is important to recognize the exceptionally peaceful nature of this process as well as its very specific goal. We will be expressing a collective, nonpartisan desire for an independent and fair judicial system, which has lately been lacking in Turkey.

Though the government allowed the march and rally to proceed despite security concerns and its evident criticism of Mr. Erdogans authoritarian leadership, it is the largest sign of opposition since the failed coup last July, which resulted in the deaths of 249 people.

Politicians, including members of the C.H.P., rallied behind the president after the coup attempt, but differences over the scale of his crackdown have since emerged. Mr. Erdogan has ordered the arrests of 50,000 people accused of links to the coup plotters, and organized a referendum that granted him greater powers, including over the judiciary.

In an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit last week, Mr. Erdogan insisted that the judiciary in Turkey was independent and defended the widespread arrests, saying many of those detained, including journalists, face terrorism charges.

If it turns out that they are innocent, the judiciary will release them, he said. But if they are guilty, the judiciary will rule accordingly.

Sundays rally passed without incident. Mr. Kilicdaroglu commended his supporters for completing the march peacefully and thanked the security forces for their management of the crowds.

But he was forthright in his accusations against Mr. Erdogans government, calling on him to immediately lift the state of emergency and release two hunger strikers who are seriously ill. He also urged judges to resist government pressure or resign. I am telling him directly from here, Your justice will not crush us, he said.

He presented a 10-point statement demanding that changes in the constitution be reversed, that last years coup attempt be fully investigated and that journalists, members of Parliament and army privates be released and civil servants reinstated.

Justice is a right, we want our right back, he said. We millions here demand a new social contract.

Dursun Cicek, a C.H.P. member of Parliament and a former political prisoner, said the rally marked the opening of a campaign by opposition parties to challenge Mr. Erdogans government ahead of the presidential election in 2019. If they change, then O.K., he said. But if they dont change, we will gain power in a democratic way.

Mr. Erdogan, who was at the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, last week, and met with Rex W. Tillerson, the United States secretary of state, in Ankara on Sunday, did not react to Mr. Kilicdaroglus challenge.

Supporters of Mr. Erdogan were largely absent from the rally. Some workers watched in silence. Drivers complained that roads were sealed off for the march.

God sees everything, one driver said.

Supporters of the C.H.P. said they welcomed the call for action. I am really happy that finally we have heard this is the beginning, and from the street, Ogun Gidisoglu said. Referring to Mr. Kilicdaroglu, he said, He has unleashed us.

But some said they feared that the success of the march would lead to arrests of their leaders in coming days.

Mahmut Tanal, a senior C.H.P. member of Parliament and a member of the parliamentary human rights commission, said it was a risk they were prepared for. I am one of their targets, he said. If they try and arrest me, I will welcome them.

Our aim was to raise awareness and serve a wake-up call for justice, Mr. Tanal said. I think we have succeeded.

An article on Monday about a protest march in Istanbul referred incorrectly to Die Zeit, a German newspaper that published an interview with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Die Zeit is a weekly, not a daily.

A version of this article appears in print on July 10, 2017, on Page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: March for Justice Ends 3-Week Protest in Turkey.

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'March for Justice' Ends in Istanbul With a Pointed Challenge to Erdogan - New York Times

Swedish lawmakers file ‘genocide’ complaint against Erdogan – Times LIVE

A Swedish law adopted in 2014 allows the country's courts to judge cases of alleged crimes against humanity regardless of where they have been committed or by whom.

The law stipulates that "anyone, who in order to completely or partially destroy a national or ethnic group of people" kills, causes serious pain or injury is "guilty of genocide".

The Public Prosecution Offices said it would now decide whether to initiate a preliminary investigation, adding that "it may take a while".

If prosecutors decide to launch an investigation, Erdogan could risk an arrest warrant in Sweden, the lawmakers said.

Carl Schlyter, an MP for the Greens, said he hoped other lawmakers in European countries would follow their move.

"If (Erdogan) is hindered from roaming around in Europe and influencing European countries the way he wants, then I hope that this will affect his politics," he said.

The UN Human Rights Office in March released a report on allegations of "massive destruction, killings and numerous other serious human rights violations committed" between July 2015 and December 2016 in Turkey's southeast.

Hundreds of members of the Turkish security forces have been killed since the collapse of the ceasefire, and the army has claimed killing thousands of militants.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), classified as a terror group by Turkey, the EU and the US, has waged an insurgency in the country since 1984 -- initially focusing on independence demands then greater rights -- that has left at least 40,000 people dead.

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Swedish lawmakers file 'genocide' complaint against Erdogan - Times LIVE