Turkey’s own poor record
AS the Saudis flummox over feeble and fabricated explanations for the murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plays the part of the outraged innocent.
If only. His record is appalling. His righteous proclaiming should not obscure his treatment of Turkish dissidents and his march onwards to an increasing authoritarian government and towards a strongman dictatorship.
Turkey a decade ago was a middleincome country that was riding through the global financial crisis and looked to a bright future. It was a secular democracy with the prospect of joining the European Union and where the rule of law largely applied. While mostly Muslim, it was a multicultural, multiethnic and multireligious nation.
It stood in the tradition of its great founder and hero, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and for the aims of building a modern, progressive, and secular state.
It even engineered a ceasefire in the war with the Kurdish separatist PKK, before Mr Erdogan trashed that in the interests of a patriotic war and winning a crucial election in his move to total control by himself and his Justice and Development (AK) Party. By the end of 2015, the judiciary had lost its independence, the media was cowed and police were in his court.
Mr Erdogan also played the righteous religious card to win support from the countryside and the poor, and undermine the secular state. And he took advantage of an attempted army coup in July 2016 to cement his control and declare a state of emergency.
Since then more than 142,000 people have been detained, 200 media outlets shut down and more than 300 journalists arrested. This month Turkey’s appeal court upheld life sentences handed down to four leading journalists.
Turkey has become the world’s biggest prison for journalists. In a world with shrinking press freedom, it managed to slip further down the Reporters Without Borders list — from 155th to 157th out of 180 states.
‘‘Detained journalists and closed media outlets are denied any effective legal recourse,’’ the organisation says. ‘‘The rule of law is a fading memory under the now allpowerful president. Even constitutional court rulings are no longer automatically implemented. Censorship of websites and online social media has also reached unprecedented levels.’’
Turkey has had a volatile political and human rights history. By 2003 it had become relatively transparent, but in the past few years its slide has been among the most alarming anywhere.
Latterly, Turkey’s economy has struggled and spluttered. Tourism, a large part of its income, stalled in the face of terrorist attacks in Istanbul and the changes in the country’s image.
At least, there are no reports of state murder of journalists in Turkey these days. There would, in any case, be little need when they can easily be locked up.
Turkey’s media and human rights abuses in no way excuse the callous and brutal Saudi treatment of Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi leadership thought it could get away with silencing a Washington Post columnist who was living in the United States. That has backfired, and Turkey has been able to dripfeed information to embarrass the Saudis and advance its own interests.
But the world can also look askance at Turkey and Mr Erdogan, and condemn their treatment of journalists and dissidents.