BBC called
it plainly ‘the attack of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’. The attack
was against a French journalist, Laurent Richard who dared to ask a question
Erdoğan did not like. He was immediately accused of speaking with the ‘mouth of
FETÖ’, the faith-based group Erdoğan blames for the failed coup of last year-
the group denies any involvement.
Blaming
‘FETÖ’ for everything that goes wrong has been a national sport for Erdoğan and
his comrades. ‘FETÖ’ is now the ultimate panacea to cover up anything from
corruption to extra-judicial killings.
Thanks God,
Mr. Richard is a French journalist working in France. He would, most probably,
be in jail by now as one of the Turkish-origin French journalists commented at
French channel BFM, ‘he would be arrested while leaving the studio’. At best,
the case for insulting President would already be lodged against him. European
leaders who have again started rolling red carpets for Erdoğan should not
forget that Richard’s Turkish colleagues are just not as lucky.
Erdoğan met
his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris during his first foreign visit
of 2018 a day before his foreign minister had talks with his German colleague
in the German city of Goslar.
Aware of
his international isolation, Erdoğan will not miss any opportunity to change
the perception at least for domestic consumption by handing out lucrative
tenders as he did in France.
I will not
be surprised if Deniz Yücel, the Turkish-origin German journalist who is in
jail for the last ten months without an indictment, is released soon as Turkish
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has already started exchanging pleasantries
with his German homologue Sigmar Gabriel. The two ministers have vowed to end
the feud and mend the relations. Gabriel, who hosted Çavuşoğlu at his home, said
the two had “given ourselves the task to do everything to overcome the
difficulties in German-Turkish relations”.
Do not get
me wrong: Yücel should be freed right away and he should not have been arrested
in the first place. However, his Turkish colleagues do not have a European
foreign minister who would shuttle between Ankara and their capitals for their
release.
Macron and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel should not be satisfied with only the release
of their citizens. Freedom of expression is stifled in every way possible in
acceding candidate Turkey even if they are released and hopefully they are. But
that will not change the situation on the ground.
For
Erdoğan, diplomacy is one-way street and it is always his message that should
be heeded, not his counterpart’s. On his way back, Erdoğan was asked by his
handpicked journalists to comment about French President’s proposal that
options other than membership should now be discussed in relations with Turkey.
He replied exactly like this: ‘I did not want to understand what he tried to
mean. I preferred to focus my attention that he would get my message. What I
want to say, he should rather understand me very clearly’.
In a new
emergency decree recently, Turkish government now made it obligatory for all
convicts and suspects in pretrial detention that committed crimes against the
constitutional order to wear jumpsuits. EU had already criticized the move when
it was a draft.
But the
most worrisome part of the decree was the immunity given to those civilians who
participated in the suppression of the July 15 coup and to those who would
participate in the future possible similar acts of suppressing rebellion.
“Erdoğan regime has welcomed private participation in witch hunts against
Erdoğan enemies. Now pro-state vigilantism is formally legal,” tweeted Timur
Kuran, a professor of economic and political development at Duke University.
Others reacted that this was last nail in the coffin of the rule of law in
EU-candidate Turkey.
According
to the Turkish Justice Ministry, Erdoğan’s lawyers has opened almost 14 cases
on a daily basis in 2016 against those who allegedly insulted the President.
Despite repeated calls from EU, Turkey has so far refused to amend its
anti-terror law, which is used against not only terrorists but also critics
from all different backgrounds.
Asked by
Macron about the jailed journalists, Erdoğan told him that ‘a part of the
so-called journalists were just ordinary criminals and most of them were in
prison because of terrorism or terrorism-related offences’. According to his
own words, he also reminded Macron that Turkey was far more advanced in human
rights than many Western countries.
Turkish
government has on several occasions declared that it wished 2018 to be the year
of thaw in its relations with EU countries. Mending ties would be in the best
interest of both parties and its peoples. However, Europeans should not bend
Copenhagen Criteria and membership principles to mend ties with a government
that keeps towing away Turkey from European Union ideals. Macron and Merkel
should not forget that more than 200 ‘so-called journalists’ are in jail and
Turkey is, by far, the champion of journalists-jailer in the world.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/european-leaders-erdogans-charm-offensive/