Human Rights Watch Warns of 'Authoritarian Drift' in Turkey

[Berkut]

Topical op-ed piece from Spiegel Online:

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/syrien-irak-libyen-warum-diktatur-besser-ist-als-anarchie-a-994225.html

The gist: after toppling an autocratic regime, a functioning democracy might not necessarily follow (see Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, ...), and instead might create instability/a failed state that prepares the ground for extremist regimes (IS). Therefore it might be better for the West in terms of Realpolitik to keep a stable dictatorship around and try to push them towards peaceful change and reform, and having a functioning state needs to be a higher priority of decision makers.

...and then we can listen to the Europeans bitch about how the US supports dictators.

[mongers]

Erdogan urges Turkey's new parliament to address constitution

4 November 2015

President Erdogan was giving his first major speech since his AK Party won the parliamentary elections

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey's parliament should prioritise discussions on a new constitution, following his AK Party's electoral triumph.

Mr Erdogan said that constitutional change was one of the most important messages of Sunday's result.

He has long wanted to strengthen the powers of the presidency.

But critics have warned it could strengthen what they see as his authoritarian tendencies.

The AKP regained its parliamentary majority in the snap election on Sunday, but still fell 13 seats short of the number of MPs required to call a referendum on the constitution.

In his first major speech since the victory, Mr Erdogan said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would consult opposition leaders on getting support for rewriting the constitution.

The president warned opponents against resisting the move.
....

Full item here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34720067

[jimmy olsen]

That is definitely an issue. Liberal democracy in its modern form as practiced in the west is the result of centuries worth of process of a kind or societal development so far unique in the world. This kind of system requires a big level of self restraint from the leaders and in fact from the people and a general consensus on the supremacy of the basic ideas behind it. Even Eastern Europe is having serious trouble in trying to adopt the system without having this full background behind it. And most of the Middle East is missing that background altogether

Seems to be working fine in East Asia, despite not having those centuries of societal development.

[Valmy]

Erdogan urges Turkey's new parliament to address constitution

Erdogan: First Consul for life?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Erdogan urges Turkey's new parliament to address constitution

Erdogan: First Consul for life?

"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer**" more like it.

[garbon]

So why is this a country that should get EU membership?

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/turkey-largest-newspaper-tows-line-seizure-160306082619067.html

Turkey's Zaman: Editorial tone changes after takeover

Pro-government slant marks newspaper's first edition since judicial intervention which set off two days of protests.

Turkey's largest-circulation newspaper has adopted a pro-government line in its first edition since a court ordered it to be seized in a controversial decision.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Istanbul, said the Turkish-language Zaman had changed its editorial tone drastically.

The top story on Sunday described how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a ceremony marking a key phase in the construction of a bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

"If anyone was wondering if there were going to be serious changes to the tone or editorial stance of Zaman, well they got their answer on Sunday morning," he said.

"This used to be an opposition paper but Sunday's edition carried pro-government stories across its front page."
Zaman's website was offline, with a message that read: "We will provide you, our readers, with a better quality and more objective service as soon as possible."

The website of the English-language Today's Zaman, which was also confiscated, featured stories about the takeover and the European Union's critical response but had not been updated since Saturday.

Police stormed the offices on Friday to enforce a court decision to place it and its sister outlets under the management of trustees.

The court appointed an administrator to run Zaman, Today's Zaman and the Cihan agency.

The step prompted two days of protests which riot police dispersed using tear gas and water cannon.

About 50 people stood outside of the paper's Istanbul offices again on Sunday to protest against the takeover, witnesses said.

The atmosphere was calm, however.

Employees returned to the newsroom on Saturday to work under the new administrator, but Abdulhamit Bilici, Zaman's editor-in-chief, and Bulent Kenes, a columnist, were fired and escorted from the premises, said Sevgi Akarcesme, top editor at Today's Zaman.

Rights groups and European officials have criticised the takeover, saying it infringed on press freedom in Turkey, an EU candidate country.


Independent Turkish journalist discusses Zaman takeover
En route to Brussels to attend an EU meeting, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's prime minister, rejected that charge, saying a legal process was under way to investigate illicit financing of a "terrorist" organisation and that there had been no political interference.

Zaman was linked to Erdogan's rival, the US-based Muslim leader Fethullah Gulen. Its takeover is part of a wider state crackdown on his religious movement.

The court ruling came at the request of a prosecutor investigating Gulen on terrorism charges, state media said.

Prosecutors have accused Zaman and its affiliates of praising and helping what they called a "terrorist organisation".

Erdogan and Davutoglu accuse Gulen of plotting to topple their government in 2013 after police suspected of belonging to the religious movement leaked a corruption investigation into Erdogan's family and ministers.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media.

Gulen has denied the allegations.

"There is some obvious evidence that they [Gulen and Zaman] are linked to many international organisations," Yasin Aktay, a member of Turkey's ruling AK party, told Al Jazeera.

"And Zaman newspapers and others are part of this coordination with this apparatus."

Aktay rejected allegations about media intolerance on the part of the Turkish government.

"There is no intolerance in Turkey about media criticism. [There's] probably more than 60 or 70 percent of the media in Turkey against the government and the government is tolerating them," he said.

[Berkut]

Religion is great.

[Maladict]

Reports of shots fired in Ankara, tanks in the streets and jets overhead.
Bosporus bridges closed in Istanbul, lots of military and unverified reports of police being de-armed.

[DGuller]

Interesting times.

[mongers]

This report is clearly now very, very out of date.


Next stop, show trials.

[Archy]

Even Worse.
According to Turkish embassador to belgium our Flemish govt support terrorists
They alos opened a snitch line for Gülenist living over here 

[Maladict]

Then they came for the intelligentsia. Over 20,000 teachers fired, university employees forbidden to travel abroad.

[Liep]

Have anything interesting come from the AKP Wikileaks yet?

[Valmy]

Then they came for the intelligentsia. Over 20,000 teachers fired, university employees forbidden to travel abroad.

Wait what? Seriously?

[Monoriu]

I seem to recall that I have seen a similar plot play out many years ago.  It is called the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones