Monday\u2019s raid on the country\u2019s oldest independent newspaper, Cumhuriyet, and detentions of 18 of its executives and journalists, will be remembered as a watershed moment for Turkey.<\/p>\n
It was the latest in the relentless crackdown and systematic purge of opposition, following a weekend of two new executive decrees, shutting 15 more Kurdish media outlets, sacking another 10 thousand public officials, expelling \u00a01,267 academics, arresting two prominent Kurdish politicians and denying suspects their basic right of privileged access to their lawyers.<\/p>\n
What is happening in Turkey can no longer be explained as a step towards illiberalism or the crossing of a red line. Neither is it solely another nail in the coffin for freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
The country is already fully in the grips of authoritarianism; the events of these past few days are confirmation of a strong yearning to continue the march towards absolutism.<\/p>\n
It took one political Islamist movement\u2019s bloody but failed coup attempt for the other to speed up the journey. It gave the AKP government an invaluable excuse to get rid of all opposition.<\/p>\n
While exercising the legal powers granted to them under the state of emergency, Mr. Erdogan and his government seem totally oblivious to the Turkish Constitution, as well as their international commitments.<\/p>\n
The raids on the offices of Cumhuriyet and searches in the homes of its detained journalists were conducted on the suspicion of producing propaganda both for the rival Fethullah Gulen movement and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). A court order was issued making the investigations secret until the suspects are indicted. The likely next step is to appoint an administrator to Cumhuriyet which is owned by a trust fund, in order to run it down, like the earlier actions against other opposition media.<\/p>\n
These latest examples of blatant disregard for the rule of law and fundamental rights have shocked the world, prompting strong reactions from foreign governments, international organisations and media freedom defenders. Highly questionable as it may be, a move against Cumhuriyet did not surprise many in Turkey.<\/p>\n
After revealing what he claimed to be the evidence of the Turkish government\u2019s shipment of arms to jihadists in Syria, Can Dundar, the then-editor of Cumhuriyet was warned by President Erdogan that he would pay \u201ca heavy price\u201d. Can Dundar, along with his colleague Erdem Gul, spent three months in jail, pending their trial. When he came under fire outside the courthouse, which injured another journalist, and after Dundar was forced into exile, we understood how heavy this price would be. Six months later, when Dundar\u2019s attacker was released, it became even more obvious.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s mass operation against the newspaper and hurried attempts to stifle remaining independent voices have shown us something else.<\/p>\n
For the government, the aim is not only to send a chill down the spine of every journalist, but also to apportion blame for dragging the country to where it is today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday\u2019s raid on the country\u2019s oldest independent newspaper, Cumhuriyet, and detentions of 18 of its executives and journalists, will be remembered as a watershed moment for Turkey. It was the latest in the relentless crackdown and systematic purge of opposition, following a weekend of two new executive decrees, shutting 15 more Kurdish media outlets, sacking […]<\/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\/28801"}],"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=28801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28804,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28801\/revisions\/28804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}