President Erdogan\u2019s time-tested method of simultaneously entrenching authoritarian politics and unleashing a wave of nationalism is once again upon us.<\/p>\n
First, The National Security Council called for an extension to the three-month long state of emergency introduced after the failed coup in July; then the President has suggested<\/a> that extraordinary measures were still necessary for an unspecified time.<\/p>\n He then took a straw poll among an invited audience of village and neighbourhood heads gathered in the Presidential Palace. After receiving a unanimous approval, Mr Erdogan has raised the stake by saying: \u201cLet’s wait and see, maybe 12 months won’t be enough.”<\/p>\n Having sent another chilling message to the country where 85 thousand people have been sacked and 32 thousand people have been arrested already since the failed July 15 coup, President Erdogan has, once again, masterfully moved the focus of the discussion elsewhere.<\/p>\n He has declared The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne<\/a> – which he had praised only two months ago as \u201cthe foundational deed of the Turkish Republic\u201d- to be a defeatist, sell-out agreement<\/a>\u201d, prompting an angry outcry among his political opponents and a heated debate in the media. By questioning the status of the Aegean islands, he also unnerved<\/a> Greece.<\/p>\n While the historians, opposition politicians and the social media have gone into overdrive, pointing out historical inaccuracies in the President\u2019s statement, a dozen more television channels in the country have been shut down under the emergency rule. Many of them were pro-Kurdish and Alevi outlets and the list included the small but fiercely independent \u00a0IMC<\/a> television.<\/p>\n The G-9 Platform of media and press freedom organizations in Turkey has condemned<\/a> the closures, and called the shutt\u0131ng down of 12 television channels in one night \u201ca part of a much wider assault on journalism in Turkey\u201d.<\/p>\n