Thursday 23 August 2012

A DEMOCRATIC DICTATOR IN TURKEY: ERDOGAN'S GRIP ON PRESS FREEDOM WILL FOREVER PROLONG ITS ASCENSION TO THE E.U.

For those that never supported the idea of Turkey joining the European Union at the first place based on reasons known to them were basically right. Many supporters of Turkey as at that time never saw any reason why it should not be part of the European Union. And to those international political analyst around the world, that were active supporters of Turkish integration into the E.U who concluded that, it was because the European Union was much of a Christian club that was why it would never allow for the free flow of Turkish predominantly Muslim population and businesses to dominate and influence the E.U. must have gotten it wrong by now based on contemporary events in Turkey.


Having in-depth insight and taking time to study the Turkish government under its Prime minister Recep Erdogan and the AK Party, it will be easy to understand why France and Germany were against the integration of Turkey into the E.U. It is obvious from contemporary events why Turkey cannot be a partaker of E.U membership but should be given a lesser status due to its proximity and the large population it has. The actions of these two major players in the European Union can be said to be purely based on the leadership characteristics of  the AK Party’s system of democratic governance in denying the people freedom of information and expression and the consequent arrest, imprisonment of journalist and bloggers that is seen as a threat by the Recep Erdogan authoritarian political administration in Turkey.


The Prime minister and his party have been able to silence any opposition or private media organization with the November 2011 adoption of a policy of filtering information. The law has out rightly denied the Turkish people the right to free press and self-expression and this act alone should bring to bear the question if Turkey is a fledgling democracy like any other western European nation?  And in one of the Prime Minister's public speech to the media he said they can not say he should not inter-vain in what the columnist writers. The Turkish government in 2010, tried to send a newspaper editor to prison for 525 years on 105 separate counts charge for saying the what the government believes is wrong thing. This explains that a dictator does not necessarily need to be an autocratic leader who has supreme control of a political society by relying on his military and security agencies.But can also be a democratic leader who denies his people the freedom of information and self-expression with the adoption of obnoxious laws in order to have total control, making it possible to arrest and imprison the citizenry. Especially, journalist and those who have the guts to speak against or share their opinion on state matters.


For those that are conversant with the Western mainstream media, they would understand how  President Vladimir Putin of Russia is being portrayed as a dictator but it is far more better to be a blogger or a journalist in Russia than being one in Turkey and all attention has to be shifted to the Western ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.[NATO]  The attention of the world and human rights organizations must be brought quickly due to the fact that thousands of websites have been blocked  by the Turkish government under its Prime minister Erdogan with the support of the ruling AK Party through court orders and by quickly arranged administrative laws to curtail the free flow of information and this act  has made information dissemination in Turkey to become a crime. The justice and development party (AKP) has not been able to deliver justice to freedom of speech in Turkey.
Many among those websites which condemned the in-action and sluggish response of the Prime minister against the attack by the Israeli commandos on the flotilla which killed many Turkish nationals on their way to break the Israeli siege on the poverty stricken coastal enclave of Gaza have all been affected by the administrative law which the party adopted to control the mass media in Turkey.




The government of Turkey managed by the Prime minister has in its record a large numbers of jailed influential journalist for their activities, many other journalist and bloggers are scared to write or criticize the Erdogan’s government, they cannot report or speak publicly criticizing the regime for the fear of being arrested, tortured and imprisoned, some have decided to leave the country for fear of being detained by the government. Some press international organization have asked the Erdogan’s government to release detained journalist without charges but the government is not yet known to have released any and has been able to completely denied its citizenry the machinery of press freedom and was ranked number 148 in the 2011-2012 World Press Freedom Index.This standing can truly not be for a country willing to join the E.U.


 Erdogan and his ruling party have been able to successfully silence all alternative media outlet in Turkey, the government has gotten a free hand to operate as it wishes both within and outside its territory and it has prompt the human rights record in Turkey to be a source for concern internationally. The lack of constructive criticism by the media has made it almost impossible to know the truth about the Turkish regime and its activities, little or no information get to the public about government activities, for the fact that those that are suppose to report it as being held in captivity and the people are only told what they need to know by government spokesmen. Keeping them in the dark has been a good strategy of their elected leaders and it has been impossible for the people or the press  to criticize the covert military operations of the Erdogan’s government in both the Kurdish territory and its involvement in the Syrian crisis.



Finally, we must see reason with Nicholas Sarkozy, the former president of France and other European officials who were against the full integration of Turkey into the E.U. Not because Turkey is being ruled by a Muslim based ideologically party or because its citizens are not western enough but because Turkish society is yet to train leaders that will learn and understand the European culture of democratic principles.

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