Turkey Shoot

I'd love to read more about the 'evidence' on which prosecutors have drawn up an warrant for the arrest of a American-based political rival of Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan.

After being accused of corruption himself earlier this year, Prime Minister turned on his accusers and effectively hounded them all out of office following which the charges against Prime Minister Erdogan were all dropped.

I think the American authorities should publish the details if and hone they receive an extradition request, otherwise it all looks like a bit of a stunt.

Turkey issues arrest warrant for Erdoğan rival Fethullah Gülen

Prosecutor charges elderly US-based Islamic cleric with operating armed terror group following raids on media outlets

By Constanze Letsch - The Guardian

The warrant marks an escalation in the battle between Erdogan and Gülen whose movement has millions of followers worldwide. Photograph: Stringer/Turkey/Reuters

A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, a former ally of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has since become a fierce critic.

In his request for the warrant, Istanbul public prosecutor Hasan Yilmaz accused Gülen of leading a criminal organisation. According to Turkish media reports, the charges include operating an armed terror group, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. Yilmaz said that “sufficient tangible evidence showing that Gülen committed a crime was collected during the investigation”.

Turkish authorities are now able to apply to Washington for extradition of the elderly cleric, though such a request is likely to put strained relations with Turkey’s Nato ally under further pressure.

Following a string of orchestrated raids on media outlets with ties to the cleric last Sunday, the warrant marks another escalation in the battle between Erdoğan and Gülen, whose movement, also known as Hizmet, has millions of followers worldwide.

Erdoğan has accused his foe of establishing a “parallel structure” within the state by placing his followers in institutions such as the judiciary and the police, and of exerting strong influence through his media empire. Gülen denies any intent to overthrow Erdoğan or the Turkish government.

The European Union has strongly condemned the raids, which Erdoğan defended as a necessary response to “dirty operations” against the Turkish government.

Speaking at the opening of an extension to an oil refinery near Istanbul, Erdoğan told his EU critics to mind their own business: “We have no concern about what the EU might say, whether the EU accepts us as members or not, we have no such concern. Please keep your wisdom to yourself,” he said.

EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn described the police operation as “not really an invitation to move further forward” with Turkey. The US State Department has also expressed concern, urging Turkish authorities “to ensure their actions do not violate [the] core values [media freedom, due process, and judicial independence]”.

On Friday, a Turkish court also kept a media executive and three other people detained during Sunday’s raids in custody pending trial, all of them on charges of being members of a terrorist group.

Hidayet Karaca is the head of the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, a media organisation known to have close ties to the Gülen movement. Ekrem Dumanli, editor-in-chief of the Zaman newspaper also linked to Gülen, was released pending trial, but forbidden from travelling abroad before the completion of the criminal investigation.

Human rights groups criticised the court’s decision. “Human Rights Watch is concerned at today’s court decision to place journalist and Samanyolu broadcasting group head, Hidayet Karaca, in pre-trial detention,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, HRW’s senior Turkey researcher. “Pre-trial detention should be the exception, and keeping journalists in custody on dubious terrorism charges without clear justification harms media freedom and is likely to further dent Turkey’s international reputation.”

The power and influence of the elderly cleric and his far-reaching network have long been a defining issue of Turkish politics. The domination of Erdoğan’s AKP in Turkey was aided by his alliance with Gülen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1998. Those who dared to speak up and criticise the Gülen movement were swiftly punished, often through dubious court cases and on fabricated charges.

The relationship between the two turned sour after a corruption scandal in December last year that implicated the government, Erdoğan’s closest associates and his family. Maintaining that the sleaze allegations were unfounded and part of a coup attempt led by Gülen, Erdoğan purged the police of thousands of officers, transferred prosecutors linked to the investigation and tightened control over the judiciary. Prosecutors dropped the corruption charges this year.

Erdoğan said that both the operations and the purges of state institutions would continue, and added that the judiciary and some others, including the state scientific agency Tubitak, must yet be “cleansed of all traitors”.

Shoe Box Scandal (6 January 2014)

Here's a fascinating article from the Independent which lifts the lid on dirty financial dealings within the highest levels of the Turkish Government.

Seems like Turkey has some way to go with its application to join the European Union because I can't envisage any other member country approving of a situation where the Prime Minister can effectively block a judge-led investigation into allegations of serious corruption within his own Government. 

Beneath Turkey's turmoil is a bitter battle between two wounded men

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's abuse of power is being exposed by the equally intimidating exiled spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen


By Fiachra Gibbons


Images of Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen at a protest against Turkey's ruling AK party in Istanbul. Photograph: Osman Orsal/Reuters

Imagine for a moment you saw yourself as a "model for the world" like the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who recently not only retained the world titles for locking up journalists and ordering Google to take down web pages, but also declared yet again that he would not rest until Turkey was a "top 10 democracy".

So what would you do if half of your inner circle of ministers and their sons were implicated in the biggest corruption scandal in Turkish history, accused among other things of taking bribes of tens of millions to ignore to billions of dollars of dodgy dealings?

Would you – as Erdoğan did – fire the police who uncovered the corruption; threaten to jail judges and curb their powers; bring in new prosecutors who are relaxed about people keeping millions in cash in shoe boxes, and order that henceforth police must tell ministers if they are thinking of investigating them, so they can tidy their shoe boxes away?

And would you also claim, like him, that "dark forces" in the same judiciary and police that you recently used to lock up your enemies, were plotting to assassinate you?

In a final flourish, Erdoğan allowed his interior minister not only to pick off the detectives investigating the minister and his son, but also to get rid of 70 police chiefs and 580 other officers in six days, while an equal number of Erdoğan supporters were rewarded with their jobs. The new police chiefs' first act was to refuse to investigate fresh corruption cases, one of which allegedly involves Erdoğan's son, Bilal.

Yet until the last few days, Erdoğan seemed as immune as ever to the normal rules of political gravity. This was a leader who not only remained after the deaths of young people during the Gezi protests this summer, but also persuaded a large section of the Turkish public that a crisis he himself had created was actually an international conspiracy against him by the EU, the US, Lufthansa – yes Lufthansa – and of course, Israel.

This time, however, Erdoğan appears to have been undermined by a fatal moment of sanity. After seven days of sacking and shredding, he finally asked four ministers to step down. One refused to go – and said that Erdogan himself should also resign.

In an ideal world the scandal would have been exposed by a fearless cadre of impartial prosecutors. The truth is more complicated. Almost certainly nothing would have come to light if Erdoğan had not crossed his most important former ally, the exiled spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen. The head of a worldwide movement dedicated to interfaith dialogue and reconciling Islam with science, Gülen's followers run a network of schools and media outlets including Turkey's biggest selling newspaper, Zaman.

Gülenists are widely believed to have infiltrated intelligence and the special courts, which were crucial to breaking the malign power of Turkey's coup-happy military by exposing alleged plots against Erdoğan and his moderately Islamist AK party, who were once seen as Turkey's great hope for reform. Awkward questions, however, began to surface when journalists who pried into the movement were rounded up with the ultra-secularist generals. As he was carted off to prison, one investigative reporter, Ahmet Sik, famously cried: "Touch them and you burn."

It is now Erdoğan who is feeling the heat after he threatened to close Gülen's schools. He was convinced the Gülenists were plotting to rid of him and afraid his authoritarianism would destroy the AK party if he assumed Putinesque presidential powers after a referendum later this year.

The first wave of corruption inquiries stopped just short of Erdoğan's own family, whose spectacular enrichment was one of the sparks of the Gezi protests. However, the usually circumspect Gülen delivered the lowest blow personally, saying he once warned a powerful politician of the dangers of his relationship with "a promiscuous woman". Ever the macho, Erdoğan threatened to "break the hands of the traitors" and declared a "new war of independence" against foreign interference (Gülen is exiled in the US). While some secularists revel in the battle, far more in Turkey are terrified at the damage that might be done by Erdoğan's fury.

Turkey has made huge strides in the past decade. Erdoğan and Gülen will be thanked by history for neutering the military, despite the questionable methods used. All that and more is now at risk as these two ill and wounded men go all out to destroy each other — the latest salvo being Erdoğan's use of the military yesterday to allege that it was Gülen, and Gülen alone, who was behind a plot against them. Oh the irony.

There was once much good in Erdoğan, a hardman footballer turned self-styled national saviour – and his fall is a great political tragedy. He promised Turks and Kurds peace, freedom and prosperity, and for a while seemed capable of delivering this. But he will leave a legacy of fear, censorship and corruption.

Now as he winds himself in the rhetoric of martyrdom and conspiracy, Erdoğan has one last chance to redeem himself in the manner of his going. Turkish history, however, is not littered with many edifying precedents.

Semi-secret organisations such as Gülen's Hizmet are not ideal champions of transparent democracy, particularly in a country cursed since Ottoman times by the unseen hand of masonic fraternities and a notorious "deep state". Like the military, they too must be tackled if real democracy is ever to thrive. But for now, with no opposition worthy of the name, and a civil society not yet strong enough to count, they are all Turkey has got.

Turkish Thug (26 June 2014)

The Turkish prime minister, Recip Erdogan, has a well justified reputation as a bit of a thug and just the other week one of his trusted advisers was caught on camera in the process of giving a defenceless protester a good kicking while he was on the ground being restrained by two armed soldiers.

Now to make matters worse PM Erdogan then singled out a member of the international press corps, CNN's Ivan Watson, for special criticism calling him a 'flunky' and an 'agent' which is code language for 'spy' and an incitement to violence, if you ask me. 

Here's the incident captured live on CNN's own cameras as a bunch of goons drag the TV crew away for filming what the Turkish police are doing.  

Turkish PM says CNN correspondent is an agent after police harass him on air

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacks foreign media days after Ivan Watson is interrupted during live broadcast on Istanbul protests

Reuters in Istanbul

Ivan Watson, CNN's Turkey correspondent, is detained in Taksim Square on Saturday. Photograph: Selcuk Bulent/AP

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called the CNN correspondent Ivan Watson a "flunky" and an agent for his coverage of anti-government protests days after police harassed him live on air.

Istanbul police interrupted a live CNN International broadcast on Saturday and briefly held Watson, the news broadcaster's long-time Istanbul correspondent. He was reporting on the first anniversary of Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in decades.

Erdoğan has repeatedly accused the foreign media and governments of having a hand in the protests, which have erupted sporadically but with far smaller numbers since last June. He also blames an international conspiracy for a graft scandal that implicated his inner circle in December.

Saturday's demonstrations were muted, with a heavy police presence at Taksim Square, where last year's protests began, to prevent any unrest. They fired teargas and water cannon to disperse 1,000 or so protesters.

"The international media that came to Istanbul and made exaggerated, provocative calls were licking their paws. One of them was that CNN flunky," Erdogan told members of his AK party in parliament in a speech aired live by several channels.

"He was caught red-handed. These people have nothing to do with a free, impartial, independent press. These people are literally executing their duties as agents. That's why they are here."

Erdoğan recalled CNN's hours-long live coverage of the 2013 protests in Istanbul's central Taksim Square and said it was aimed at fomenting unrest.

At the time, hundreds of thousands of people occupied Taksim for two weeks to protest against the government, following plans by Erdoğan to raze a park in Istanbul to make space for a mall.

"We stand unequivocally by our reporting from Turkey, which has been and continues to be fair, factual and impartial," said a spokesperson for CNN, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

On Saturday, police shoved and kicked Watson, then dragged him off camera while he spoke during a live broadcast from Taksim. Watson is seen showing his Turkish press accreditation.

"Turkish police detained me and my crew in the middle of a live report in Taksim Square. One officer kneed me in the butt," Watson tweeted on Saturday.

"Turkish police released CNN team after half an hour. Officer apologised for another officer who kneed me while I was being detained," he tweeted 30 minutes later.

A government official said on Saturday that the prime minister's office had phoned Watson to inquire about his situation to ensure he was safe and said he was only held for a few minutes because he was not carrying his passport.

Groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch have expressed worries about the climate for journalists in Turkey.

Aide-de-Camp (17 May 2014)

I once wrote that Alistair Campbell (Tony Blair's press secretary) would have swum the English Channel with an anvil on his back, if such a deed was necessary to fulfil his role as the Prime Minister's aide-de-camp. 

But this is as nothing compared to the lengths that some people are prepared to go to including Yusuf Yerkel who is seen here sticking the boot into a protester during a visit to the site of the Soma mining disaster in the western Turkey.

Now the security people seem to have the situation under control, but Yusuf is clearly  the kind of person who leaves nothing to chance.

Yusuf Yerkel, by the way, is a special advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan.

Sorry for your loss, but.... (16 May 2014)

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan has a reputation as a tough old political cookie who knows how many beans make five.

Until yesterday that is when he shot himself in both feet, politically speaking,while visiting the site of the Soma mining disaster where at least 282 Turkish miners lost their lives in a tragic underground accident.  

Because after commiserating with the locals saying the right things such as 'Sorry for your loss', the Prime Minister Erdogan went on to play down the significance of the incident - by comparing Soma to other terrible mining disasters which have taken place in other countries over the years, including Britain.   

But this is not, of course, what people expect to hear when they are mourning for their loved ones, many of whom are still lost down the mine and so there has been an understandably angry reaction to what Prime Minister Erdogan had to say. 

Just imagine that instead of capturing the national mood by describing Princess Diana as the 'People's Princess' Tony Blair had said - "Well it's a terrible tragedy, but as everyone knows accidents happen all the time!"