Ankara’s repression and neo-Ottoman dreams worry the international community
A court remands into custody nine journalists waiting for trail. The leaders of the main Kurdish opposition party are also jailed. Ankara blames the PKK for yesterday’s attack in Diyarbakir, claimed by the Islamic State. Concern is growing in the West over thousands of arrests and Turkey’s imploding democracy. Turkism expansionism targets Aleppo, Raqqa and Mosul.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) – An Istanbul court remanded into custody nine journalists from the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet after government authorities began targeting it in the past few months, the Doğan news agency reported.
Those under arrest include the paper’s editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, editorial writer Kadri Gürsel, and caricaturist Musa Kart. All are charged with having links with Kurdish rebels and backing last July’s failed coup.
Yesterday, the Turkish authorities also ordered the arrest of Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekda, co-presidents of the main opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and of three of its MPs, in connection with the crackdown launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government against supporters of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is thought to have masterminded the July coup. From his exile in the United States, Gülen continues to deny any involvement in the coup that left 270 people dead, and thousands injured.
The arrest warrant against the two HDP leaders was issued by a court in Diyarbakir, in the predominantly Kurdish south-east Turkey, where, yesterday, a car bomb near a police station killed nine people died, injuring about a hundred more. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim immediately blamed the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK for the action, which, in his words, “shows again its treacherous face”.
However, late in afternoon yesterday, AMAQ, the official propaganda agency of the so-called Caliphate, or Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the Diyarbakir blast.
Since mid-July, Turkish authorities have detained 37,000 people. An additional 100,000 have come under investigation or have been temporarily suspended from their jobs in a purge that involves intellectuals, political opponents, dissidents, military, civil servants, teachers, judges and ordinary citizens, all accused of being sympathetic towards Islamic preacher Gülen.
The crackdown has sparked protests from Turkey’s opposition and raised growing concerns in the international community. Reacting to the arrest of its leaders, the HDP said it marked "the end of democracy". likewise, as part of the campaign of repression, internet and social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were blocked for most of yesterday.
In light of the situation, the leaders of the European Union have recalled their ambassadors in Ankara for an urgent meeting.
In Berlin, the German Foreign Minister summoned the Turkish charge d'affaires to discuss "the latest developments" in the country. The United States too said it was "deeply troubled" by the latest arrests. A spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern" over the latest events.
International analysts and experts confirm Western fears about the campaign of repression that threatens to "sink” Turkey’s democracy.
Interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour, Jean Marcou, director of International Relations at Grenoble Institute of Political Studies and A Turkey specialist, points out that behind this campaign is the attempt by Erdogan to "shift the balance" in parliament in order to "reform the Constitution" towards a presidential system. This way he can concentrate power in his hands, and silence the opposition.
"Democracy in Turkey is disappearing, is collapsing,” the analyst adds. “This is also apparent in the choice of [university] deans who, as of today, is the exclusive prerogative of the government "without taking into account recommendations from university councils".
This campaign of repression may encourage the Kurdish minority to "revive the armed struggle" as its space in Parliament is reduced. Such a prospect could affect in particular younger Kurds.
Ankara has doubled its domestic repression with an imperialistic foreign policy that aims – according to President Erdogan’s plans – to re-establish the old Ottoman Empire. Three strategic cities – Mosul in Iraq, and Raqqa and Aleppo in Syria – are key to this ambitious project.
All three are at the centre of regional and international conflicts involving Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran, regular armies and rebel militias, jihadists and Islamic state. All three are essential to rebuild what was once Turkey’s dominion in the region.
This explains the tensions between Ankara and Baghdad, and the ambivalence of Turkish foreign policy vis-à-vis Moscow and Washington.
Nevertheless, pro-government media support Erdogan’s imperialist ambitions, like the daily Yeni Safak, which claims that for historical reasons "Mosul and Aleppo should be returned to Turkey."
.png)
25/03/2021 17:13
