The Turkey-Japan Media Forum, which is organized by the Medialog Platform — an industry advocacy group connected to the İstanbul-based Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) — kicked off in İstanbul on Thursday.
Many journalists from Turkish and Japanese media outlets will participate in the forum, during which the attendees will discuss the role of media in terms of multiculturalism and coexistence, the perception of Turkey in the Japanese media and the perception of Japan in the Turkish media, the relationship between media and democracy and new media tendencies in the digital era.
The opening speech of the forum was delivered by GYV Chairman Mustafa Yeşil, who drew attention to the importance of different cultures sharing their experiences.
“I find it extremely positive that these two communities are sharing their rich experiences in the area of democracy with each other, both on the occasion of this meeting and in other events,” Yeşil said.
While on its face, the notion that elements in the Turkish military loyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan deliberately launched a “fake coup” to justify a crackdown on Erdoğan’s enemies sounds farfetched, the belief is taking hold not only among Turkey’s staunch secularist minority and followers of Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, but also among those who know the Turkish military well.
Turkey’s purges are hitting its business class
It is not clear when the government will begin auctioning off seized firms. The risk is that the economy may gradually come to resemble Russia’s, where political loyalty is the price for keeping a slice of the pie. “It is like watching a piece of snow roll down a mountain,” says a veteran civil servant ousted in one of the purges. “You think it won’t hit you, until you realise it’s becoming an avalanche.”
Islamic scholar Gülen responds to Turkish PM’s ‘lair’ remark in heated row over graft probe
Islamist scholar Fethullah Gülen has countered the Turkish prime minister’s remarks vowing to clamp down on “the ones in lairs,” escalating the heat of the war of words between parties amid the ongoing corruption probe.
American reporters got an intriguing glimpse into the political mind-set in Turkey
Turkish leaders said they were astonished that they had so far been unsuccessful in persuading the United States Justice Department to even ask a federal judge to extradite Fethullah Gulen. The Turkish government said it had provided the United States with extensive proof against Mr. Gulen, who has denied involvement. But Turkish officials refused in several interviews to publicize a single piece of that evidence.
Erdoğan’s overarching purge is not a road accident
The purge of the Hizmet Movement is what the Kurdish question was to Kemalism, a necessary tool with which to construct a new national identity, a tool to silence those who question it, and to design a social and political system that will foster it. Unfortunately, Turkey has no chance of going back, even to its fragile and dysfunctional democracy, without this narrative being completely rejected.
Who is Fethullah Gülen?
The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, rightly called it “a coup against democracy” when Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı and STV network executive Hidayet Karaca, together with a number of screenwriters and television producers, were detained on Dec. 14 on the incredible charges of founding or belonging to “an armed terrorist organization aiming to seize the sovereignty of the state.”
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