Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Two German ministers want to attack Erdogan propaganda

By

German Foreign Ministers and Justice on Tuesday called for a stronger control of the mosques that relay the “propaganda” of the Turkish president, the latest episode of a German-Turkish crisis that has worsened for months.

Earlier, German diplomacy chief Sigmar Gabriel accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters of harassing his wife.

“We have to be careful that the Muslim communities of Germany do not fall under the influence of President Erdogan,” foreign ministers Sigmar Gabriel and Justice Heiko Maas write in a rostrum at the Spiegel.

“In no case can we tolerate parallel societies or even counter-companies,” the two ministers added. “Nor should we underestimate the dangers that emanate from the Erdogan state organizations in Germany,” according to the two Social Democratic leaders who want Germany to “protect people who protest against cultural warfare And the propaganda of Erdogan “.

The appeal came after Erdogan urged the German Turks not to vote for three of the major parties in the 24 September parliamentary elections, including the SPD and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), “Enemies” of Turkey.

Germany is home to the largest Turkish diaspora in the world, with some 3 million people. Many of their mosques or religious communities are directly managed by the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs through its organization, the Ditib, which sends imams to Germany.

In particular since Turkey’s failed coup in Turkey in July 2016, Turkish associations have been accused of relaying Erdogan’s increasingly aggressive policy towards German leaders.

A case of espionage by an imam of the Ditib shook the community and pushed Berlin to harden the tone.

The head of the German diplomacy also accused Tuesday of supporters of the Turkish government for threatening his wife because they felt encouraged by aggressive prominences of Mr. Erdogan.

The Social Democratic candidate in the chancellery, Martin Schulz, accuses the Turkish leader of “using the language of a brute counter instead of that of a head of state”.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan multiplied the invective towards the German politicians, directly attacking Mr. Gabriel.

Thursday, August 24, 2017,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Turkish Dictator Erdogan tells German Turks not to vote for Angela Merkel, CDU, SPD or Greens

By

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed Germany’s three main political parties as “enemies of Turkey” ahead of parliamentary elections. The comments drew a swift rebuke from Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told Turks living in Germany they should punish mainstream German parties in September’s parliamentary elections.

“I am calling on all my countrymen in Germany to not make the mistake of supporting them,” he said, singling out Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the Social Democrats and the Greens as “enemies of Turkey.”

Instead he urged Turks to “support those political parties who are not enemies of Turkey,” calling it a “struggle of honor.”

Merkel sharply rebuked his remarks, rejecting Erdogan’s “meddling” and pointing out that “German voters, including the ones with Turkish background, have a right to vote freely.”

“We will not stand for any kind of interference,” she said from a Friday campaign event in Herford, northwest Germany.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was also quick to condemn Erdogan’s comments, telling the RedaktionsNetzwerk media group they amounted to an “unprecedented act of interference in the sovereignty of our country.”

He accused the Turkish leader of seeking to incite people against each other, and urged voters to “show those who want to play us against each other that we will not participate in this evil game.”

Relations between the two NATO allies have become increasingly strained in the wake of last year’s failed coup in Turkey. One key point of contention is Ankara’s jailing of German nationals – a journalist and a human rights worker – amid the thousands of people who have been arrested in a post-coup crackdown. Turkey, meanwhile, has accused Berlin of protecting suspects alleged to have played a role in the coup attempt.

“I call on them not to vote for those parties who have been engaged in such aggressive, disrespectful attitudes against Turkey, and I invite them to teach a lesson to those political parties at the ballot box,” Erdogan said.

CDU leader Angela Merkel is running for a fourth term as chancellor in federal elections on September 24. Around one-third of the 3 million Turks living in Germany are eligible to cast votes.

Corruption, nepotism obvious under Erdogan

By

Erdogan corruptionBy Pinar Tremblay

Turkey recently appointed 37 new ambassadors, and this lineup has some atypical players: Five of them are not career diplomats and two are headscarved women. The latter caught the public’s attention.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has altered Turkey’s longtime tradition of appointing career diplomats, enabling the government to nominate “outside” civilians without any sort of confirmation process.

The issue is not necessarily about the women’s headscarves but rather about their family connections. The ambassador to Kuwait, Ayse Sayan Koytak, is the older sister of Turkey’s Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Kaya. Kaya’s younger sister, Sumeyye Sayan, made the news in April as an AKP member of the Istanbul City Municipality. Reports connected Sayan to firms that won multiple tenders from the municipality to provide “psychological support services” totaling a hefty yearly income of 2 million Turkish liras ($565,000). The opposition charged that this was unethical, as Sayan is a municipality official.

The second person who wears a headscarf is Merve Kavakci. In 1999, Kavakci was not allowed to take her elected seat in the Turkish parliament because of a secular ban on headscarves. She also lost her citizenship, as she had become a dual US-Turkish citizen without informing authorities. Kavakci regained her Turkish citizenship this year and is now the ambassador to Malaysia. Kavakci’s younger sister has been an AKP lawmaker since 2015.

With the nomination of these two women, the importance of family ties in building a career in Turkish politics and bureaucracy has become a topic of discussion. A rhetorical but bitter question in Ankara among opposition figures is: What is the probability of becoming an ambassador if your sibling is from the AKP?

On Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perception Index, Turkey ranked 53rd among 175 countries — the lower the number, the better. In 2016, it fell to 75th place among 176 countries.

In 2016, according to Transparency International findings and the polling of 2,000 people by the research firm Ipsos Group, 55% of the respondents believed corruption had increased in Turkey in the previous two years, and 60% were not hopeful that the corruption would decrease in the next two years. The most devastating finding of the detailed research is that more young respondents, compared with older respondents, think it is acceptable for a government employee to accept gifts and money. For ages 18-24, 29% said it is normal, whereas for those above 65, 11% believe such gifts are acceptable. The poll also showed that respondents with less education showed less concern about corruption than more-educated participants. Most people surveyed failed to comprehend that political corruption is stealing from their incomes. To the contrary, the general understanding goes as follows: “Yes, there are some corrupt government employees, but this the reality of Turkey. Whoever comes to power will be corrupt. At least the AKP provides services.”

The Turkish public’s acquiescence doesn’t mean people are oblivious to institutional corruption. Survey participants ranked institutions related to education, land acquisition, municipalities and health as the most troubled.

Indeed, we can see the effects of corruption and a lack of accountability in three primary areas.

First is the growth of discretionary funds. From the time now-President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister in 2003 until 2016, discretionary funds have grown by a factor of 17. In the first six months of 2017, opposition newspapers reported Erdogan’s and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s record-breaking spending. Their unaudited spending reached 1.7 billion Turkish liras ($481 million). These funds are growing without oversight, behind a veil of secrecy. As parliament’s powers are significantly curtailed, we can only expect this sort of spending to increase.

The second area of corruption and lack of accountability is the incredible extent of cronyism seen in two areas: hiring at government agencies and bribing of government officials. Since the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, the government has been diligently purging staff from all agencies it believes might be connected. The Gulen movement has been accused of engineering high test scores on written government and military entrance exams by stealing the questions and answers for their members. There also are allegations that Alevis, Kurds and secular Turks are systematically discriminated against when they seek government jobs. One of the opposition’s main concerns is that the large number of positions left vacant by the purge are being filled by members of religious orders or by family members of the AKP elite. Competition among top AKP members to secure lucrative government positions for their family members is intense. That links to the issue of bribery. Many government employees, including lawmakers, live beyond their financial means. The common complaint is that the salaries of even the top officials are not sufficient to buy a decent house or pay for education or health care for their families. So a system that leaves behind little trace of corruption has been established. Wealthy businesspeople provide payments directly to officials in exchange for getting their business deals worked out smoothly. The most obvious cases are in the media sector.

The third area of corruption and lack of accountability is that of turning state agencies into vessels to pay off loyalists. For example, Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) has been making the news for its lavish spending on private production companies. On Aug. 8, taxes for smartphones and tablets were increased to 10% of the sale price to contribute to TRT’s budget. From 2015 to 2016, TRT’s employee count dropped by 280 workers, but its annual employment costs increased 79 million Turkish liras. Despite employing more than 6,000 people, it still outsources programming, paying more than 753 million Turkish liras in 2016. One worker at a sitcom production agency told Al-Monitor, “We do not make much money really. The money is supposedly paid to our company, but then we have to pay off government people. These are mostly pro-government academics or journalists who are hired as consultants to the show.”

Perhaps the bigger the amount of money involved, the less need to hide any family connections involved. Germany’s Siemens recently won the tender for a $1 billion wind-power project in Turkey with its consortium partners Turkerler and Kalyon, both Turkish companies. Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, happily announced the deal, as the Kalyon Group is linked to Albayrak’s brother.

Another recent allegation from the opposition is that Istanbul Municipality’s “i-taxi” project (recording the voices and images of passengers) is estimated to deliver 200 million Turkish liras of annual revenue. Part of this money will allegedly be delivered to a programming company that belongs to an AKP lawmaker’s son.

If one uses an internet search engine to look up “corruption in state institutions” in Turkish, several of the top hits lead to discussions about whether such corruption is permissible in Islam. Most of the online discussions reflect that it is seen as not only an acceptable system, but also an efficient one. “Getting things done” is the justification for siphoning money from the state.

How long can such a system be sustained? As long as political corruption is not seen as illicit or harmful to individuals’ livelihood, the system will endure.

Tremblay is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse and a visiting scholar of political science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is a columnist for Turkish news outlet T24. Her articles have appeared in Time, New

 

Why Erdogan fired Turkey’s top Religious Affairs Directorate

By

Mehmet Gormez,

Mehmet Gormez, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, addresses the media in Ankara, Turkey, Jan. 8, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Umit Bektas)

By Mustafa Akyol,

On June 31, Mehmet Gormez, a Turkish cleric who headed the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), a government department that runs more than 85,000 mosques, bid farewell to his post he had occupied since 2010. Gormez’s term didn’t end until 2020, which is why his early departure triggered a heated discussion in the media and on social media. As with most other changes in the state bureaucracy, many people believed that the departure of the erudite theologian had something to do with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to single-handedly build a “New Turkey.”

A few facts about the Diyanet: It is a government body whose budget exceeds many key government ministries, such as the Foreign Ministry, and whose influence over society is significant. Created back in Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s time (1923-1938) as a key institution of the Turkish Republic, the Diyanet has always controlled all mosques in Turkey, paying the salaries of the imams and also supervising the content of their sermons. Since the 1960s, its influence even spread to Europe, as it opened hundreds of mosques in countries like Germany with substantial Turkish immigrant communities.

The Diyanet itself is governed by top-down dictates of the state. The head of the institution is appointed by the president and can be changed at will. Various Diyanet heads have been dismissed throughout the past century when they failed to comply with the instructions of the government. This hierarchical structure is one of the reasons why Turkey’s self-styled “secularism” does not imply a wall separating between the state and religion. It rather implies the state’s total control over religion.

The Diyanet’s story with Mehmet Gormez, who was an academic theologian before becoming a cleric, began in 2003 when he was made deputy president by the organization’s then newly appointed head, Ali Bardakoglu, another academic-turned-cleric. Both Bardakoglu and Gormez came from the more reformist strain within Turkey’s pool of theologians, holding the conviction that “Muslimhood” needs a “renewal” in the modern age. One step toward that goal was the “Hadith Project,” which revised and contextualized the medieval collections of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad. The project began in 2008 under the leadership of Gormez and was completed five years later.

In 2010, the Erdogan government replaced Bardakoglu with Gormez for reasons that remained unclear. In the next seven years, Gormez became quite an active Diyanet head, with public appearances both in Turkey and abroad. He delivered the first sermon in Turkey in the Kurdish language, and he also gave the first sermon by a Turkish scholar at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. He launched a scholarly refutation of the Islamic State, criticized the conservatives who did not want women and children in the mosques, and mobilized the public announcement systems of minarets against the military coup attempt on the fateful night of July 15, 2016.

In the eyes of most people in the Turkish opposition, Gormez was just another pillar of the Erdogan regime. In the eyes of the staunchest defenders of the same regime, however, Gormez was just not staunch — and not obedient — enough. This became evident earlier this year, when daily Turkiye, a pro-Islamic newspaper that lately has become one of the bastions of the most ferocious Erdoganists, began slamming Gormez for being soft on the Gulenists, which amounts to the ultimate political heresy in today’s Turkey.

Al-Monitor sources in Ankara suggested that the campaign against Gormez was spearheaded by the notorious “Pelicanists.” The term comes from the mysterious “Pelican Brief” blog, which was the trigger to the ousting of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu back in May 2016. Since then, “Pelicanists” has become the code word for the hard-core Erdoganists who lash out against not only the critics of Erdogan but also his softer supporters who supposedly show signs of “treason.” “They want to replace the people with 98% loyalty,” as an insider once told me, “with people with 110% loyalty.”

A few articles in the Turkish media also offered the same explanation for Gormez’s departure, which was apparently based not on his own request, as it was officially announced, but on a decision from the very top. One article was by Hakan Albayrak, an Islamist writer who is supportive of the government but who also has the rare spine to criticize it. Gormez was dismissed, he wrote in his column in daily Karar, because he “did not take certain steps without consulting the commission of scholars.” Because of this, Albayrak added, Gormez was ultimately found “not very fit for practical use.”

It seems that Gormez was also dismissed because his views on Islam were found to be too “reformist” and “modernist” compared to the more rigid and conservative circles that are becoming growingly assertive in the “New Turkey.” A famous voice from this conservative camp, a fiery preacher named Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, condemned Gormez “as the worst head of the Diyanet ever” and expressed the hope that he would be replaced with “someone loyal to Ahl al-Sunna.” The term is the Arabic word for Sunni Islam, and it is used in Turkey often to designate a pure, unreformed form of it. Other conservative Islamist figures shared this point of view in social media and vowed that the new head of the directorate must be “a defender of Ahl al-Sunna.”

At this point, it is actually not clear who will replace Gormez as the head of the Diyanet. What matters, however, is not just the leader but the very mission of the institution. In his noteworthy farewell speech, Gormez pointed to this issue. It must be decided, he said, “Whether this deep-rooted institution is a purely bureaucratic body or whether it represents the scholarship tradition that guides our religious-spiritual life.” And there are few reasons today to think that the powers that be prefer anything other than “a purely bureaucratic body.”

Mustafa Akyol is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, a columnist for the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News, and a monthly contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times. His articles have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. He is the author of Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty. Akyol is currently a Visting Senior Fellow at the Freedom Project at the Wellesley College. On Twitter: @AkyolinEnglish

Germany’s patience with Erdogan may be running out

By

Erdogan Germany By Semih Idiz,

Turkish-German relations may be moving toward a point of no return. Despite its continuing angry tone toward Berlin, though, Ankara is visibly worried that the deteriorating state of its ties with Germany could have serious negative effects on Turkey’s already shaky economy and is trying to contain this.

Too much has happened between the sides over the past year for this effort to succeed the way Ankara wants it to. Germany is signaling instead that it is abandoning its policy of appeasement and will opt for punitive measures against Turkey.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has also weighed in to support this by saying it is “a question of the self-respect of our land to send a meaningful message [to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan].”

Erdogan, however, is clearly not interested in toning down his harsh anti-German rhetoric, or in meeting Berlin’s demands regarding democracy and human rights in Turkey. His angry tone against that country, which he says is harboring plotters who tried to overthrow him in last year’s failed coup attempt, goes down well with his support base in Turkey and, ironically, also among Turks in Germany.

Ahmet Acet, who served as Turkey’s ambassador to Berlin in 2008-2011, believes the blame for the state of Turkish-German ties today lies mostly with Erdogan’s populist outbursts in recent months.

“Germans are a patient and pragmatic people who are aware of the importance of Turkey,” Acet — who has since retired — told Al-Monitor. “But the harsh accusations and the abuse they faced showed that their patience goes only so far,” he added.

Acet said the parliamentary elections to be held in Germany in September were also putting a lot of pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is trying to contain gains by the far right — which makes it more difficult for her to appear lenient on Turkey.

The government of Erdogan’s acolyte, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, is trying hard to reassure German companies that it is “business as usual” in Turkey. Flanked by Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci and EU Minister Omer Celik, Yildirim told German CEOs in Turkey on July 27 that their investments in Turkey were safe.

“It is very important to us that you are not a part of this tension and do not suffer any damage from the events,” Yildirim told representatives of Bosch, Siemens, Mercedes, the Metro Group, Thyssenkrupp and others.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told a press conference in Berlin July 20 — after the arrest in Turkey of German human rights consultant Peter Steudtner and five other human rights activists, including Amnesty International’s Turkey director Idil Eser — that “they needed their policies toward Turkey to go in a new direction.”

“We need to be clearer than we have been until now, so those responsible in Ankara understand that such policies are not without consequences,” Gabriel said.

Berlin is also angry over the arrest in Turkey of the Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel, who is accused of “inciting hatred and terrorist propaganda.”

Gabriel also underlined the risks Germans visiting Turkey could face. Berlin has complained about the difficulties German Embassy officials faced when trying to visit Yucel and Steudtner in prison. Berlin is clearly telling its citizens that if they fall afoul of the Turkish authorities, Germany may not be able to help them.

Gabriel added that Berlin could no longer guarantee German corporate investment in Turkey. He was responding to accusations by Ankara that German companies, including giants like Daimler and BASF, had links to Fethullah Gulen, the self-exiled Islamic preacher who is accused of masterminding last year’s failed coup against Erdogan.

Matters also took another serious turn for Turkey with the revelation that Berlin wants the European Commission to suspend work on updating the EU-Turkey Customs Union. Berlin says continuing with this “would send the wrong signal” to Ankara.

Nevertheless, Berlin has refused to back calls from Europe to end Turkey’s EU accession talks because developments in Turkey are at odds with EU principles. It cited pragmatic considerations, such as the 2016 Turkey-EU migration deal, as reasons why dialogue channels with Ankara must be kept open.

Its desire to see the Customs Union talks with Turkey suspended may be a sign that this approach is changing too.

Recalling the economic crisis with Russia after Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet in 2015, Ankara clearly does not want to go down that path with Germany. Russia’s retaliatory sanctions were too much to bear and forced Erdogan, in the end, to apologize to President Vladimir Putin over the jet incident.

Turkey’s economic ties with Germany outweigh its economic ties with Russia, and many question if Ankara can bear the brunt of German sanctions. Germany is Turkey’s No. 1 trading partner, with the volume of trade reaching nearly 38 billion euros in 2015.

Germany is also the second-largest foreign investor in Turkey, with investments over 13.3 billion euros since 1980. According to official German sources, the number of companies in Turkey that have received German equity investment is over 6,800. These include companies owned by Turks in Germany.

Economy Minister Zeybekci provided a striking example of just how the latest German moves may have hit their mark. Zeybekci said those who sent the list of German companies with alleged links to Gulen’s FETO group to Berlin and Interpol had acted “irresponsibly.”

“A mistake such as this will definitely never happen again,” he added.

Rather than placating the German side, the remarks by Yildirim and Zeybekci appear to have convinced Berlin that pressure on Ankara is working.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, who has compared Erdogan’s Turkey to Communist East Germany, upped the ante by announcing that they would also review future arms sales to Turkey.

Turkish-German ties have been strained since last year’s failed coup attempt following which Berlin refused to extradite alleged coup plotters to Turkey on the grounds that it has not been furnished with concrete evidence. Berlin has also decided to grant asylum to many who say they face persecution in Turkey.

Name-calling between the sides started after German authorities prevented Erdogan and Turkish government ministers from canvassing Turks in Germany for the April 16 referendum, which aimed to make Erdogan the unchecked executive president of Turkey.

Erdogan responded by accusing German politicians of behaving like Nazis. Turkey also responded by refusing to grant visitation rights to German deputies who wished to meet with German soldiers stationed at the Incirlik air base, where they are assisting the US-led coalition against the Islamic State.

Germany subsequently decided to relocate its forces in Incirlik to Jordan. In a move that angered Germany further, Turkey also prevented German deputies recently from visiting their soldiers stationed at the NATO base in Konya.

Turkey also complains that Germany is lenient toward supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey and which Berlin also says is a terrorist organization. Erdogan insists that Berlin’s policy on Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization fugitives and PKK supporters makes Germany a terrorism-supporting state.

Germany, however, is not only a strategic economic partner for Turkey but also hosts millions of Turks, and this complicates the situation for both sides. The two countries are so inextricably entwined that many believe a major breakdown in ties is highly improbable.

Acet said, “The Mercedes and Volkswagens in that country will ultimately prevent this from happening.”

Nevertheless, there is still plenty of room for ties to deteriorate further — since neither side is prepared to climb down from its demands — and eventually reach a point of no return.

Semih Idiz is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse. He is a journalist who has been covering diplomacy and foreign policy issues for major Turkish newspapers for 30 years. His opinion pieces can be followed in the English-language Hurriyet Daily News. His articles have also been published in The Financial Times, The Times of London, Mediterranean Quarterly and Foreign Policy magazine.

Erdogan Heated rhetoric ahead of EU-Turkey showdown

By

Heated rhetoric ahead of EU-Turkey showdownTurkey has stepped up its verbal assaults on the Western world, especially Germany, ahead of high-level talks with the EU. One Turkish paper even used the well-worn Hitler comparison.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to pour oil on a flaming diplomatic dispute on Tuesday, saying that Turkey would no longer be submissive and cede to every Western whim.

“The West wants Turkey to bring about their demands no questions asked … I am sorry to say that that Turkey no longer exists,” Erdogan said, hours before Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to meet with high-ranking EU officials in Brussels.

His anti-Western rhetoric was echoed in Turkish pro-government media, with one paper saying that Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel was worse than during Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

“Merkel’s Germany has surpassed Hitler in oppression and hatred,” the paper Yeni Akit said, alleging that Turks living in the country no longer received medical treatment, were sacked arbitrarily and were unable to rent flats.

There is no evidence that the large community of Turkish people in Germany is being subjected to such treatment.

Erdogan heads to the Gulf states to divide and concur Arab

By

Erdogan divide and conquer Arab ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan heads to the Gulf this weekend in an attempt to patch up the rift between Qatar and its neighbors, but the firm Qatari ally may find himself with little room to maneuver as a mediator.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties and imposed sanctions on Qatar last month, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the charges.

In what has become the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years, the neighbors have since issued more than a dozen demands, telling Qatar to close down Al Jazeera television, curb relations with Iran and shutter a Turkish military base.

Erdogan has said the demands are unlawful and has called for an end to the crisis, citing the need for Muslim solidarity and strong trade ties in the region.

“We will work until the end for the solution of the dispute between the brotherly nations of the region,” he said in comments after prayers on Friday. “Political problems are temporary, whereas economic ties are permanent, and I expect the investors from Gulf countries to choose long-term ties.”

While looking to defend Doha, Erdogan is also wary of alienating its neighbors. He will visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar during the two-day trip that starts on Sunday.

US politicians want apology for brutal attack by Turkish President Erdogan’s bodyguards

By

Erdogan bodyguards attackAmericans are incensed by a brutal attack by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards on protesters even now, months later. Politicians joined the victims to express their outrage at a rally in Washington.

Two months after bodyguards in the service of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brutally attacked anti-Erdogan demonstrators in Washington, members of the US Congress joined victims of the attack in a “Stand for Free Speech” rally at Sheridan Circle in the capital. Five bipartisan members of Congress and about 50 protestors from Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian groups met in front of the Turkish ambassador’s residence to reaffirm their right to free speech and stand up for press freedom in Turkey.

“American soil is free soil,” Republican Congressman Ted Poe told the crowd. “The idea that a foreign tyrant can come to the USA and allow his goons to beat up Americans on American soil is preposterous. The Turkish government is responsible for this action.”

Read: Opinion: Germany is finally taking a tougher stance on Erdogan’s Turkey

Lucy Usoyan, founder and president of the Ezidi Relief Fund, a non-governmental organization that advocates for refugees in Kurdish regions of Turkey and Syria, is one of several anti-Erdogan protestors who were attacked on May 16. Usoyan was knocked unconscious, but was later able to identify a New Jersey man as one of her attackers. He has been charged with a hate crime, a classification of crime that increases penalties in sentencing.

Usoyan wants President Erdogan to apologize to US citizens for what his bodyguards did. “They must be held accountable,” said Usoyan. “They have to be extradited for prosecution and sentencing.”

Democratic Congressman John Sarbanes reiterated that freedom of speech is a fundamental part of democracy. “We want to remind Erdogan that in this country, we have a constitution that allows us to speak freely without fear of being beaten up,” Sarbanes said.

Attack made Americans take notice

“Freedom is something that people are born with, and Erdogan cannot simply take it away,” Usoyan added. Usoyan suffered a concussion and was hospitalized. She said she was glad the trials of the attackers were bringing attention to what she considered the bleak conditions of human rights and free speech in Turkey. She was shocked and horrified that this violent incident had to happen on US soil for people to notice.

In June, 18 arrest warrants were issued for alleged attackers, including a dozen for Turkish bodyguards, two for Turkish-Americans and two for Turkish-Canadians. In response to the May 16 melee, the German government indicated that Erdogan’s bodyguards would not be welcome at the G20 Summit in Hamburg.

One of the accused, a Turkish-American named Sinan Narin, is currently on trial in the District of Columbia for aggravated and misdemeanor assault. On his Facebook page, Turkish social media users have praised Narin as a “hero,” and said he was “defending” President Erdogan. The Turkish embassy’s Facebook page has since been filled with one-star reviews, with many users calling for expulsion of the Turkish ambassador to the United States.

The Turkish Embassy alleged that the demonstrators were associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Protestors denied this allegation.

This incident is not the first time that Erdogan’s bodyguards have found themselves in trouble in Washington. A Brookings Institute event in 2016 that featured Erdogan also ended with Erdogan’s bodyguards beating up Brookings staff and journalists.

Turkey’s relations with the US and the European Union have been strained for some time. Last year’s failed coup, the dire situation for journalists in Turkey, and Erdogan’s recent statement vowing to “behead” traitors, leave the country facing a turning point in its relationship with democracy, and with other nations.

Germany said on Thursday it was reorienting its relationship with Turkey after a court in Istanbul ordered six human rights activists, including a German man from Berlin, detained on suspicion of supporting terrorism. Turkey will face a further test next week, when parliament will vote on whether to authorize the death penalty.

Turkey: Even through all his bluster, Erdogan’s fear is obvious

By

A soldier accused of attempting to assassinate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the night of the failed coup of July 15, 2016, is carried to the courthouse by gendarmes in Mugla, Turkey, July 14, 2017. (photo by REUTERS/Kenan Gurbuz)

By Pinar Tremblay,

Turkey is commemorating the first anniversary of the July 15 failed coup — the official Martyrs and Democracy Day. The list of state-sponsored celebrations is quite impressive, with nonstop TV shows rewriting that night. A webpage titled “July 15 activities” presents a documentary, songs about the attempt, the names of those killed, and the images of monuments built in Ankara and Istanbul for the victims. It also displays posters designed to capture the key moments of the coup attempt. Since July 11, these images have decorated cities throughout Turkey. Most of them are quite problematic, however.

There is an uproar on social media under the hashtag #IndirinOAfisleri (Take down those posters), which quickly became a trending topic. Social media commentators and columnists were disappointed, furious and perplexed; the most prevalent complaint was the display of Turkish soldiers as traitors and losers positioned against civilians and the Turkish flag. Those who object see the campaign as the government’s psychological attack on the military and believe it benefits the country’s enemies. Many commentators expressed surprise that there was not an image of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is said to have orchestrated the coup attempt.

Ultranationalist politicians Umit Ozdag and Meral Aksener expressed their disapproval of the posters and asked for them to be corrected promptly.

Within a few hours, it became clear that these images were not only offensive to the Turkish Armed Forces, but they were also plagiarized — in particular, one image caused commotion because it was plagiarized from an award-winning image by American photographer David Turnley taken during the 1991 Gulf War.

In the midst of the public’s anger, several old photos and videos resurfaced online of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Justice and Development Party (AKP) elites with Gulen. So far, it’s unclear who was responsible for these images. People jokingly debated on social media whether it is Gulen followers or foreign enemies.

The images of defeated and meek soldiers underline two intertwined issues that are becoming increasingly problematic. First, a year after the botched coup, the domestic and international public remains unclear about what really happened. The coup’s political culprits can’t be clarified without the AKP’s cooperation.

Second, why does the government have such an uneasy relationship with the military? The images posted on social media revealed the pent-up frustration the Turkish public has with the AKP government and compelled a public discussion. For example, one Twitter user posted photos of distressed soldiers and wrote, “You cannot pen a grand legacy by getting poor conscripts killed in Syria or through Sadat.” (Sadat is the name of an international defense consultancy company whose owner, Adnan Tanriverdi, is one of Erdogan’s senior advisers.)

Even long before the coup attempt, Ankara bureaucrats would joke, “We have to keep the military busy so it won’t have time to cause trouble.”

AKP elites haven’t hidden their suspicion of the armed forces. They have persistently expressed dislike of national holidays celebrated with military parades, which used to be opportunities for the armed forces to show their strength. Through the years, AKP leaders have found perplexing excuses not to attend national celebrations, and they sometimes ban military parades altogether. Instead, government offices, schools and the public have been encouraged to celebrate newly discovered Islamic holidays and AKP-approved events.

A few recent cases that didn’t escape the press indicate that AKP officials, including Erdogan, may indeed be more worried about the armed forces than ever before. For example, in May, just before Erdogan’s arrival in the city of Tekirdag, a soldier assigned to salute the president was removed from the military guard. He was accused of being a member of the Gulen movement.

In June, images of officers with empty holsters saluting Erdogan appeared in the media. And it’s not just Erdogan who may not like security personnel with guns. On July 11, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was photographed saluting special operations police who had blank firing adaptors attached to their automatic rifles. Although unverified, there have long been rumors that Erdogan, AKP bureaucrats, lawmakers and even pro-AKP journalists wear bulletproof vests. So what is the cause of their hyperbolic fear of the military?

A professor of Ottoman history who works at a government university and spoke on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor, “Trying to revitalize the Ottoman Empire’s glory, Erdogan has definitely woken up the sultan’s nightmare of the Janissaries. For centuries, the sounds of their cauldrons’ banging sent chills down the spines of the palace elite. So the tradition of a military shadow on politics is part of the culture here. Despite multiple coups, armed forces are revered because they are considered just and necessary for modern Turkey.”

However, he said, “in the last decade, starting with the damaging plots, such as the Ergenekon and Balyoz [cases] against high-ranking military officials, the reputation of the army has been tarnished. There are also concerns that Erdogan is raising his own private army [referred to as Sadat in the daily lexicon]. Still, for Erdogan’s and other officials’ security details to collect weapons from honor guards required by protocol is unheard of.”

Given Erdogan’s show of strength July 15, and given that the military’s reputation and power are at their lowest point in the last decade, why are government elites still scared of their own soldiers?

Limited data on the past 15 years of the armed forces show a dismal picture. For example, between 2005 and 2015, more soldiers committed suicide than died in combat. That said, the number of security personnel lost in combat or terror attacks has also risen significantly since 2015. Government purges have hit the security forces the hardest, and the latest recruits haven’t been trained properly, leading to undeniable incompetence in their service at all levels. To top this off, thousands of conscripts suffered from food poisoning in May and June, and it is doubtful that the allegations of corruption involving the Defense Ministry and catering firms will ever be investigated diligently.

A colonel who spoke on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor, “Erdogan will go down in Turkish political history as a politician with the least tolerance toward criticism and satire. We knew he had a fragile ego. We now see the fear of death is quite potent for him, and it is contagious. For now, fear compels obedience. Once the threshold for fear is surpassed, the result is disobedience. Once you have overt disobedience, further domestic pressure becomes inevitable and the cycle for disaster starts. What if people no longer fear the system?”

Pinar Tremblay is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse and a visiting scholar of political science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is a columnist for Turkish news outlet T24. Her articles have appeared in Time, New

 

We will behead traitors’, says Turkey’s Erdoğan at ceremony marking July 15

By

Welcome to Beheading Turkey

On Saturday (July 15), Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech before a large crowd gathered at the Bosporus Bridge in İstanbul to mark the first anniversary of the failed putsch.

Praising on the ‘heroic acts’ of the people who had come out to the streets on the night of the attempt on 15 July 2016, Erdoğan said: “That night, I had also headed towards here (İstanbul) with my energy minister and with my wife. We had found out that the traitor gang of FETÖ was behind it (the coup plot). Our nation had immediately stepped up. And, with the calls made by my prime minister and by myself, millions of our citizend had filled up the streets, squares, and in front of barracks against the coup plotter… 36 of our citizens got martyred by the tanks that had blocked this bridge… Just as it is the case today, my citizens had on their hands just the flag (of Turkey). And, they had even more effective weapon next to that. And, that weapons was their faith! On one side, there were my faithful people, on the other side, there were the unfaithful plotters… This is the difference between people who gather randomly and those who have a common past. The former takes the risk of sacrificing their lives when necessary. That night, we saved the future of 50 million people of Turkey. We cannot checkmate without crushing the pawns. So, we are first going to behead those traitors.”