On March 4, 2016, the Turkish government raided the Istanbul offices of the Gulenist owned and operated newspaper, Today’s Zaman, seizing its overall operations – wrenching control from the Gulenists and handing it over to the Turkish government.
This is problematic – to say the least.
I’ll be the first to say that I have no great affinity for the Gulenists. In fact, it has been my personal experience that the Gulenists are masters at using the press media to exploit their agenda at the expense of their opponents, steering their bulldozer styled propaganda vehicle head on into their antagonists – a kind of hit and run modus operandi.
And sure there is an authentic concern about the Gulenists’ parallel government plot, a not so secret agenda to overthrow Erdogan’s government. But – how is seizing control of their newspaper – duct taping its mouth so to speak – going to obviate Gulen’s stronghold?
In fact, Erdogan’s not so subtle campaign to rid Turkey of Gulen, has instead – turned into a Salem-like witch hunt, one that is only missing the burning stakes.
See what Erdogan doesn’t get is that the Gulenists move stealthily, patiently, and deadly – like a brown recluse waiting at the bottom of a boot. When the recluse spider bites its victim, spreading its poison slowly – allowing the venom to destroy everything in its path, it does so in such a surreptitious way that its victims never fully realize what is happening until of course – it’s just too late.
But Erdogan moves like a bull, rampaging through the crowd, only seeing straight ahead, and never looking to see what is coming from behind. What he doesn’t see, is that the true danger is not what he faces, but in fact what he cannot or will not see with his tunnel vision.
Attempting to obliterate free speech is a fool’s folly, a temporary fix, and useless waste of war strategizing -- resulting in nothing more than old-fashioned malfeasance on the part of the Turkish government.
Sure, by taking over Gulen’s media empire, through government censorship and control, Turkey’s government might weaken Gulen’s propaganda machine, but conversely, it might likewise portray the Gulenists as victims of Erdogan’s vengeance, and foster a simpatico relationship between the two opposing camps, of which neither Gulen or Erdogan’s political stronghold can ever rebound from.
It’s a very slippery slope when governments decide to abolish the fundamental rights of its citizens under the guise of public unity and protection. In this specific case, it’s pretty clear that this man to man war between Gulen and Erdogan is no longer for the security of the Turkish citizenry, but has now evolved into a political, financial, and amoral struggle between two incredibly self-serving individuals whose only interests are to protect their respective authoritarian political platforms at the expense of Turkey.
Going back to the spider analogy… there are two trains of thought when it comes to spiders, you either pick up the spider and place it outside to live freely -- or -- you simply smash it and clean up the mess it leaves behind.
Below is a link to a story on the raid and seizure of Today’s Zaman, written by Natasha Bertrand, of the Business Insider, and published on March 5, 2016:
Shocking footage shows the moment police overran Turkey's largest newspaper using tear gas and water cannon.
Police dressed in riot gear seized the headquarters of Turkey's highest-circulation newspaper in a midnight raid Saturday, in arguably the biggest blow yet to press freedom in President Recep Erdogan's Turkey.
The government takeover of Today's Zaman was evidently in response to Erdogan's perception of the paper as a front for the Gülen movement — a social movement led by the Turkish scholar and preacher Fethullah Gülen that is openly critical of Erdogan's government.
Reporters Without Borders' secretary general Christophe Deloire released a scathing statement about the takeover, calling the operation "ideological and unlawful."
"Erdoğan is now moving from authoritarianism to all-out despotism," Deloire wrote. "Not content with throwing journalists in prison for ‘supporting terrorism’ or having them sentenced to pay heavy fines for ‘insulting the ‘head of state,’ he is now going further by taking control of Turkey’s biggest opposition newspaper.”
This is problematic – to say the least.
I’ll be the first to say that I have no great affinity for the Gulenists. In fact, it has been my personal experience that the Gulenists are masters at using the press media to exploit their agenda at the expense of their opponents, steering their bulldozer styled propaganda vehicle head on into their antagonists – a kind of hit and run modus operandi.
And sure there is an authentic concern about the Gulenists’ parallel government plot, a not so secret agenda to overthrow Erdogan’s government. But – how is seizing control of their newspaper – duct taping its mouth so to speak – going to obviate Gulen’s stronghold?
In fact, Erdogan’s not so subtle campaign to rid Turkey of Gulen, has instead – turned into a Salem-like witch hunt, one that is only missing the burning stakes.
See what Erdogan doesn’t get is that the Gulenists move stealthily, patiently, and deadly – like a brown recluse waiting at the bottom of a boot. When the recluse spider bites its victim, spreading its poison slowly – allowing the venom to destroy everything in its path, it does so in such a surreptitious way that its victims never fully realize what is happening until of course – it’s just too late.
But Erdogan moves like a bull, rampaging through the crowd, only seeing straight ahead, and never looking to see what is coming from behind. What he doesn’t see, is that the true danger is not what he faces, but in fact what he cannot or will not see with his tunnel vision.
Attempting to obliterate free speech is a fool’s folly, a temporary fix, and useless waste of war strategizing -- resulting in nothing more than old-fashioned malfeasance on the part of the Turkish government.
Sure, by taking over Gulen’s media empire, through government censorship and control, Turkey’s government might weaken Gulen’s propaganda machine, but conversely, it might likewise portray the Gulenists as victims of Erdogan’s vengeance, and foster a simpatico relationship between the two opposing camps, of which neither Gulen or Erdogan’s political stronghold can ever rebound from.
It’s a very slippery slope when governments decide to abolish the fundamental rights of its citizens under the guise of public unity and protection. In this specific case, it’s pretty clear that this man to man war between Gulen and Erdogan is no longer for the security of the Turkish citizenry, but has now evolved into a political, financial, and amoral struggle between two incredibly self-serving individuals whose only interests are to protect their respective authoritarian political platforms at the expense of Turkey.
Going back to the spider analogy… there are two trains of thought when it comes to spiders, you either pick up the spider and place it outside to live freely -- or -- you simply smash it and clean up the mess it leaves behind.
Below is a link to a story on the raid and seizure of Today’s Zaman, written by Natasha Bertrand, of the Business Insider, and published on March 5, 2016:
Shocking footage shows the moment police overran Turkey's largest newspaper using tear gas and water cannon.
Police dressed in riot gear seized the headquarters of Turkey's highest-circulation newspaper in a midnight raid Saturday, in arguably the biggest blow yet to press freedom in President Recep Erdogan's Turkey.
The government takeover of Today's Zaman was evidently in response to Erdogan's perception of the paper as a front for the Gülen movement — a social movement led by the Turkish scholar and preacher Fethullah Gülen that is openly critical of Erdogan's government.
Reporters Without Borders' secretary general Christophe Deloire released a scathing statement about the takeover, calling the operation "ideological and unlawful."
"Erdoğan is now moving from authoritarianism to all-out despotism," Deloire wrote. "Not content with throwing journalists in prison for ‘supporting terrorism’ or having them sentenced to pay heavy fines for ‘insulting the ‘head of state,’ he is now going further by taking control of Turkey’s biggest opposition newspaper.”
