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WORLDVIEW: TURKEY'S CRACKDOWN ON THE PRESS SMACKS OF AUTHORITARIANISM
By Trudy Rubin
2011 The Associated Press
Published: 03-10-2011
During my recent trip to Egypt, many young activists told me Turkey's
democracy might be a model for them to follow.
In their minds, Turkey, with its mostly Sunni Muslim population,
has managed to meld its Muslim heritage with a state based on rule of
law and a secular constitution. However, the Turkish government has
recently been showing disturbing signs of the kind of authoritarianism
the Egyptians spurned.
In the past few weeks, Turkish authorities have detained at least
a dozen journalists whose work criticized the government. They are
accused of being part of an alleged plot to overthrow Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government after it came to power in 2002.
These journalists are only the latest of several hundred current
and former military officers, intellectuals, university presidents,
women's rights advocates, and writers rounded up since 2007 as part
of this supposed plot. The conspiracy was purportedly initiated by
a shadowy network of military officers and ex-security operatives
called Ergenekon (the name of a mythical Turkish valley).
But Ergenekon looks more and more like an excuse for a religiously
oriented government to silence outspoken advocates of maintaining
Turkey as a secular state.
Consider the cases of two of the arrested journalists. Nedim Sener,
a highly respected reporter for Millyet, received the International
Press Institute's 2010 "World Press Freedom Hero" award for his book
about the murder of Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink (in which
he alleged that government security forces were complicit).
Ahmet Sik, another investigative journalist, had criticized a key
supporter of the government, a controversial Turkish imam named
Fetullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but
has great influence and a large following in Turkey. Sik claimed
Gulen's movement infiltrated Turkey's security forces.
The government prosecutor straight-facedly denied these men were
arrested for their writings, but he refused to make public any evidence
against them, citing the (endlessly) ongoing Ergenekon probe.
When the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Frank Ricciardone, asked how the
jailing of journalists jibes with Turkey's stated policy of supporting
a free press, Erdogan criticized him harshly. But refusing to answer
that question won't make it go away.
The Erdogan government's pressure on press critics has led the
international press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, to rank
Turkey 138th among 178 countries, only two spots above Russia, where
journalists are notoriously endangered.
The press group attributes this low rank to Turkey's "frenzied
proliferation of lawsuits, incarcerations, and court sentencing,
(all) targeting journalists." In 2009, for example, Turkey's Tax
Ministry levied $3 billion in fines against the Dogan media group of
newspapers and TV stations, which were critics of Erdogan, charging
he was pushing secular Turkey in too Islamic a direction.
If upheld, these draconian fines could put the media group out
of business. Using massive tax fines against opponents is all too
reminiscent of the tactics used by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin.
When the Ergenekon investigation began, some Turkish liberals hoped
it might advance civilian controls over a military that had conducted
four coups against elected governments in past decades. But the probe
has expanded into an unending witch hunt, with no end in sight.
Some of the accused have been held for years without trial. Others,
released after tough questioning, have the threat of future indictments
hanging over their heads.
The government's case appears to be based largely on a massive
network of government wiretaps, from which tidbits are selectively
leaked to the media, creating an atmosphere of intimidation. However,
the government has yet to prove that any conspiracy actually occurred.
"In 5,800 original pages [of Ergenekon charges] there is not one
shred of proof that this organization exists," said Gareth Jenkins,
a Turkey specialist who has written extensively on the affair. He
has read the entire indictment. "They [the Turkish government] have
created a fictional organization, and used it to go after their
political opponents," he said.
The Erdogan government rejects such claims, but does nothing to dispel
them by bringing the probe to a conclusion. That contradiction casts
a shadow over Turkish democracy and its aspirations to enter the
European Union. It also undercuts the hope that Ankara can provide
the model Egyptian democrats seek.
E-mail Trudy Rubin at [email protected].
From: A. Papazian
By Trudy Rubin
2011 The Associated Press
Published: 03-10-2011
During my recent trip to Egypt, many young activists told me Turkey's
democracy might be a model for them to follow.
In their minds, Turkey, with its mostly Sunni Muslim population,
has managed to meld its Muslim heritage with a state based on rule of
law and a secular constitution. However, the Turkish government has
recently been showing disturbing signs of the kind of authoritarianism
the Egyptians spurned.
In the past few weeks, Turkish authorities have detained at least
a dozen journalists whose work criticized the government. They are
accused of being part of an alleged plot to overthrow Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government after it came to power in 2002.
These journalists are only the latest of several hundred current
and former military officers, intellectuals, university presidents,
women's rights advocates, and writers rounded up since 2007 as part
of this supposed plot. The conspiracy was purportedly initiated by
a shadowy network of military officers and ex-security operatives
called Ergenekon (the name of a mythical Turkish valley).
But Ergenekon looks more and more like an excuse for a religiously
oriented government to silence outspoken advocates of maintaining
Turkey as a secular state.
Consider the cases of two of the arrested journalists. Nedim Sener,
a highly respected reporter for Millyet, received the International
Press Institute's 2010 "World Press Freedom Hero" award for his book
about the murder of Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink (in which
he alleged that government security forces were complicit).
Ahmet Sik, another investigative journalist, had criticized a key
supporter of the government, a controversial Turkish imam named
Fetullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but
has great influence and a large following in Turkey. Sik claimed
Gulen's movement infiltrated Turkey's security forces.
The government prosecutor straight-facedly denied these men were
arrested for their writings, but he refused to make public any evidence
against them, citing the (endlessly) ongoing Ergenekon probe.
When the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Frank Ricciardone, asked how the
jailing of journalists jibes with Turkey's stated policy of supporting
a free press, Erdogan criticized him harshly. But refusing to answer
that question won't make it go away.
The Erdogan government's pressure on press critics has led the
international press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, to rank
Turkey 138th among 178 countries, only two spots above Russia, where
journalists are notoriously endangered.
The press group attributes this low rank to Turkey's "frenzied
proliferation of lawsuits, incarcerations, and court sentencing,
(all) targeting journalists." In 2009, for example, Turkey's Tax
Ministry levied $3 billion in fines against the Dogan media group of
newspapers and TV stations, which were critics of Erdogan, charging
he was pushing secular Turkey in too Islamic a direction.
If upheld, these draconian fines could put the media group out
of business. Using massive tax fines against opponents is all too
reminiscent of the tactics used by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin.
When the Ergenekon investigation began, some Turkish liberals hoped
it might advance civilian controls over a military that had conducted
four coups against elected governments in past decades. But the probe
has expanded into an unending witch hunt, with no end in sight.
Some of the accused have been held for years without trial. Others,
released after tough questioning, have the threat of future indictments
hanging over their heads.
The government's case appears to be based largely on a massive
network of government wiretaps, from which tidbits are selectively
leaked to the media, creating an atmosphere of intimidation. However,
the government has yet to prove that any conspiracy actually occurred.
"In 5,800 original pages [of Ergenekon charges] there is not one
shred of proof that this organization exists," said Gareth Jenkins,
a Turkey specialist who has written extensively on the affair. He
has read the entire indictment. "They [the Turkish government] have
created a fictional organization, and used it to go after their
political opponents," he said.
The Erdogan government rejects such claims, but does nothing to dispel
them by bringing the probe to a conclusion. That contradiction casts
a shadow over Turkish democracy and its aspirations to enter the
European Union. It also undercuts the hope that Ankara can provide
the model Egyptian democrats seek.
E-mail Trudy Rubin at [email protected].
From: A. Papazian