Is Turkey’s leader attacking freedom? Illustrative. Photo Courtesy of UN Photo/Marco Castro
The protests in Turkey against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and the government crackdown in response are continuing, and freedom of the press is one area under attack. The Hurriyet Daily News reported that several different Turkish news companies have had journalists detained and some have had their residences raided. One journalist said the Turkish Interior Ministry actually called the journalists “terrorists”—a common accusation leveled by repressive regimes against the opposition. If a government doesn’t like someone, it tends to label them terrorists for no apparent reason.
The Turkish generic valium looks like protests are important because Turkey is a key nation in the Middle East. The country is an ally of the West in the Syrian civil war, Turkey is a member of the NATO defense alliance and there have been ongoing discussions about including Turkey in the Europe Union. The protests have caused real political trouble at home for Turkey’s government, which has shown some authoritarian tendencies. It should give the West some pause about including Turkey too much, but it’s also creating tension in a vital ally in the region.
To read more about the Turkish journalists, click here.