Keyword: Freedoms
Democracy is vanishing in Turkey, specialist says
Zeynalov reminded the attendees that Erdogan also was arrested a couple of decades ago. That eventually helped him to become famous and won him the elections five years later. But it didn’t stop Erdogan to use the same law for justifying the arrest of Zeynalov in 2014.
This man stood up to Trump. In Turkey he was branded a terrorist
for Fatih Yildirim, the Muslim dad in the picture, becoming a viral sensation has been bittersweet. While he was lauded in global media outlets as diverse as Time and Good Housekeeping, back in his native Turkey Yildirim became the subject of a hostile media campaign that branded him a terrorist.
New York Times Editorial Board: Turkey’s Relentless Attack on the Press
The family that owns Dogan Holding has long been influential in Turkey’s secular establishment and ran afoul of Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist-based A.K.P. Party in 2009. With the company targeted again and fearful of losing more assets, the newspaper Hurriyet is widely seen as pulling punches to appease Mr. Erdogan by firing journalists and quashing even mildly critical news stories.
Journalists seek asylum in Canada amid Turkish crackdown
Duncan Pike of the Toronto-based Canadian Journalists for Free Expression said the decline of press freedom in Turkey has been a growing concern as the Tayyip Erdogan regime continues to use the coup as a pretext to crack down on opposition critical of his government. “Reporters are stripped of press credentials. Publishing houses are closed down. Authors, journalists, teachers and academics are detained and investigated,” said Pike.
Hundreds of thousands homeless as Turkey’s southeast lay in ruins
When the residents of Sirnak returned to the city last month after Turkish authorities lifted eight-month curfew during intense urban fighting between the Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents, they were shocked with what they saw: there was no home where they left.
Amnesty: 500,000 Kurds displaced in Turkey’s Southeast due to curfews, crackdown
Tens of thousands of residents of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sur are among an estimated half million people forced from their homes as a result of a brutal crackdown by Turkish authorities over the past year which may amount to collective punishment, said Amnesty International in a new report.
Turkey torture claims in wake of failed coup
Kamil continues. “‘If you don’t speak, we’ll bring your wife here and rape her in front of your eyes’, they said. Then they took me to a dark room and tried to forcefully insert a baton into my anus. When they couldn’t do it, they left. Maybe I will forget the other torture – but for the sexual part, it is carved into the dirtiest corner of my heart.”
EU, US Have Little Leverage as Turkish Democracy Backslides
“In the big picture, Erdogan knows that the EU needs Turkey and will come back begging for a new agreement on the migrants. That’s why he will play a game of brinksmanship,” said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish program at The Washington Institute.
Gulen-linked org’s statement on Turkish Govt’s arrest of pro-Kurdish Parliamentarians
AfSV Statement on Turkish Government’s Arrest of HDP Parliamentarians Erdogan’s Persecutions Underscore Authoritarian Slide New York (November 9, 2016) – The Alliance for Shared Values is deeply concerned about the arrests of nine members of Turkish Parliament from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), including the party’s co-chairs Mr. Selahattin Demirtas and Ms. Figen Yuksekdag. […]
Crackdown in Turkey passes the point of no return
Turkey’s alliances with the US and EU are fraying badly. Above all, Mr Erdogan is moulding the country in his own image, with only a uniform message allowed. As one liberal intellectual puts it: “In the past you got arrested for what you said, but now you can be arrested for what you don’t say.”
