On 28 January, Washington-based watchdog organization Freedom House published its “Freedom in the World 2015” report and listed Turkey among the ‘Partly Free’ countries where freedom of expression, civil society, and the rule of law suffered significant reversals during the past year. Freedom House said “Turkey drifted further from democratic norms, with Prime Minister Erdoğan rising to the presidency and overseeing government attempts to quash corruption cases against his allies and associates as well as greater interference in the media and judiciary.”
On 29 January, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited a carefully selected group of four journalists to his new palace. In return, the journalists facilitated him to give his messages on key issues on live television.
Hurriyet columnist Akif Beki, who clearly confused Freedom House’s yearly “Freedom in the World” report with its “Freedom of the Press “ report, started mocking the organisation . He claimed they moved Turkey from “Not Free” to “Partly Free” this year, while criticising Mr Erdogan’s presidential style and asked Mr Erdogan to comment about this contradiction. The President did not disappoint him.
“These groups, like Freedom House, have no credibility in the world. Their credibility is nil. It is even possible that they may be deliberately founded to serve a purpose. As you know, there are organisations specially established to be used like that. ” Erdogan said.
The President’s language when talking about Freedom House was more colourful than normal. “They play for themselves and dance to their own music”, he said, adding a bit of slang: “We are not really bothered” or as he put it in Turkish- “O tür gruplar veya kuruluşlar bizi çok da ırgalamıyor”.
Hours before the Presidential TV show, Human Rights Watch published its World Report 2015 , reviewing human rights practices in more than 90 countries. It said that President Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government were undermining the gains of the past decade, eroding human rights and the rule of law.
According to HRW Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb, “Victory at the polls is no excuse for the Turkish government and President Erdoğan to roll back the reforms of the past decade and erode the institutions that make Turkey a democracy. A tamed justice system, enhanced and unchecked police powers, and a muzzled press have hurt Turkey’s citizens and dented its international reputation.”
Again on the same day, The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a report on the Protection of Media Freedom in Europe. Named and shamed, along with Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Hungary, as one of the countries where serious cases of press freedom violations have been prominent, Turkey was urged to step up its efforts in improving its press freedom records.
On 29 January, the European Court of Human Rights, too, held its annual press conference in Strasbourg, taking stock of the year 2014. The Court’s President Dean Spielmann said that the Court ruled in over 86,000 cases. Ukraine was now the highest case-country, followed by Italy and Russia, and Turkey in the fourth place.
The largest proportion of priority cases came from Russia, Romania and Turkey. For non-repetitive and non-priority cases, Russia was followed by Turkey. Like 2013, in 2014, the largest number of judgements concerning violations of freedom of speech was about Turkey.
On this eventful day of 29th January, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) also raised his voice, protesting that Turkey’s 150-year-old parliamentary system was being abandoned for the will of one person, and not for the benefit of the country. “What is your presidential system? Where one man decides who can be a member of the parliament, a governor, rector, judge? Is this your idea of a presidential system? Is it a sultanate?” he asked.
Mr. Erdogan was not fazed. He declared his intention to make constitutional changes, to legalize his de facto presidential rule, a central issue in elections to be held in June.
He complained about “too much cacophony slowing decision making”.
He saw the biggest advantage of the presidential system as ‘abolishing policy-making through multiple channels’.
As for responding to claims that he really wanted to be a sultan, Mr Erdogan said that no one called the United States a sultanate for its presidential system; nor are Brazil or Mexico seen as sultanates.
An unforgettable moment occurred when Mr Erdogan let his real vision slip:
“In my opinion, Britain has a semi-presidential system, too” he said: “There, the Queen is the dominant power”.
No journalist present would dare correct him – let alone whisper: “a few more of the wise, learned counsellors and a few less of the court jesters would be a good start, Mr President!”
This post is also available in: Turkish
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