{"id":27577,"date":"2015-01-30T21:53:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T21:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=27577"},"modified":"2015-01-30T21:53:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T21:53:21","slug":"jesters-alone-do-not-a-court-make-mr-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/jesters-alone-do-not-a-court-make-mr-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesters alone do not a court make, Mr President!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 28 January, Washington-based watchdog organization Freedom House published its \u201cFreedom in the World 2015\u201d<\/strong><\/a> report and listed Turkey among the \u2018Partly Free\u2019 countries where freedom of expression, civil society, and the rule of law suffered significant reversals during the past year.\u00a0 Freedom House said \u201cTurkey drifted further from democratic norms, with Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 29 January, President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hurriyet columnist Akif \u00a0Beki, who clearly confused Freedom House\u2019s yearly \u201cFreedom in the World\u201d report with its \u201cFreedom of\u00a0 the\u00a0 Press \u201c report,\u00a0 started mocking the \u00a0organisation . He claimed they moved Turkey from \u201cNot Free\u201d to \u201cPartly Free\u201d this year, while criticising Mr Erdogan\u2019s presidential style and asked Mr Erdogan to comment about this contradiction.\u00a0 The President did not disappoint him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese 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. \u00a0As you know, there are organisations specially established to be used like that. \u201d\u00a0 Erdogan said.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s language when talking about Freedom House was more colourful than normal. \u00a0\u201cThey play for themselves and dance to their own music\u201d, he said, adding a bit of slang: \u201cWe are not really bothered\u201d or as he put it in Turkish- \u201cO t\u00fcr gruplar veya kurulu\u015flar bizi \u00e7ok da \u0131rgalam\u0131yor\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hours before the Presidential TV show, Human Rights Watch published its World Report 2015<\/em><\/a> , <\/em>reviewing human rights practices in more than 90 countries. \u00a0It said that President Erdo\u011fan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government were undermining the gains of the past decade, eroding human rights and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

According to HRW Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb, \u00a0\u201cVictory at the polls is no excuse for the Turkish government and President Erdo\u011fan 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\u2019s citizens and dented its international reputation.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Again on the same day, The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a report on the\u00a0Protection of Media Freedom in Europe<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

On 29 January, the European Court of Human Rights, too, held its annual press conference<\/a> in Strasbourg, taking stock of the year 2014. The Court\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On this eventful day of 29th<\/sup> January, Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) also raised his voice, protesting that Turkey\u2019s 150-year-old parliamentary system was being abandoned for the will of one person, and not for the benefit of the country. \u201cWhat 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?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He complained about \u201ctoo much cacophony slowing decision making\u201d.<\/p>\n

He saw the biggest advantage of the presidential system as \u2018abolishing policy-making through multiple channels\u2019.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

An unforgettable moment occurred when Mr Erdogan let his real vision slip:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, Britain has a semi-presidential system, too\u201d he said: \u201cThere, the Queen is the dominant power\u201d.<\/p>\n

No journalist present would dare correct him – let alone whisper: \u00a0\u201ca few more of the wise, learned counsellors and a few less of the court jesters would be a good start, Mr President!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 28 January, Washington-based watchdog organization Freedom House published its \u201cFreedom in the World 2015\u201d report and listed Turkey among the \u2018Partly Free\u2019 countries where freedom of expression, civil society, and the rule of law suffered significant reversals during the past year.\u00a0 Freedom House said \u201cTurkey drifted further from democratic norms, with Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27579,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577\/revisions\/27579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}