Press Review: Turkey in International Media
Turkey’s president tweets, exiled cleric frets, while Turkish women face hidden obstacles to the right to abortion
12.02.2015
Twitter’s transparency report highlights the Turkish government as by far the most aggressive country trying to restrict access to the social media networking site. Against this background, the Turkish president posts his first tweet.
“Resist this poison.” Given the Turkish president’s hostility to Twitter you might think he was referring to the curse of social media. In fact President Erdoğan was using Twitter to denounce smoking. The irony was not lost on The Telegraph’s Raziye Akkoc in her analysis of the latest Twitter transparency report and its implications for freedom of expression in Turkey. With 470 tweets blocked in the months between July and December 2014 “Turkey was the country that made the most content removal requests” through government agencies, the police or court orders. According to the numbers published by Twitter this week Turkish government’s 356 account information requests are only exceeded by the US-government. In the second half of 2014 an amount of 820 tweets have been withheld by Turkish authorities or courts; that is more than 90 per cent of all withheld tweets.
Contrary to this “crackdown on freedom of expression” in social media President Erdoğan sent his first personal tweet on Monday, Feb 9th from the account @RT_Erdogan. “The account in question has just been opened. It’s His Excellency’s own account. Tweets from him are signed ‘RTE’,” explains the president’s head of public communications. Erdoğan dedicated his first tweet to denounce smoking on national anti-tobacco day. “#SigarayaTeslimOlma – Don’t Give in to Tobacco” tweeted Turkey’s president, who had back in August 2014 compared the social networking service with “a knife in the hand of a murderer.”
Self-exiled Fethullah Gülen escalates quarrel with president Erdoğan in the opinion column of the New York Times, accusing A.K.-Party of “eroding democracy”.
Last week the Turkish government revoked the passport of Fethullah Gülen, founder of the “Hizmet” or “Service” Movement. It accuses the religious leader, who has lived in rural Pennsylvania since 1999, “of seeking to establish a ‘parallel state’ in Turkey“.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Gülen answers back, expressing his deep disappointment in “Turkey’s decline into totalitarianism. He accuses the ruling A.K.P. of suppressing dissent and reversing the country’s progress in “becoming a functioning democracy that upholds universal human rights, gender equality, the rule of law and the rights of Kurdish and non-Muslim citizens.”
Gülen cites the clampdown on independent media and the detention of officials investigating corruption charges. He accuses Erdoğan’s party of disregarding democratic values and acting against the most basic Islamic principles, the rule of law and respect for individual freedom.
The Muslim cleric denies seeking political power for himself and presents his movement’s achievements in “interfaith dialogue, community service, relief efforts and making life-changing education accessible”. The reward for this and other civil society groups has been to become the victims of an AKP “crackdown”.
“Regardless of their religious observance, citizens can and should unite around universal human rights and freedoms, and democratically oppose those who violate them”, he writes, laying down the gauntlet for future confrontation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/opinion/fethullah-gulen-turkeys-eroding-democracy.html?_r=0
Trafficking of Syrian refugees from Turkey’s Mediterranean cost to Europe is a fast growing business.
Civil war in Syria continues to prompt a vast number of refugees who are leaving their home country in hope for a better life. Over the last four years more than 3 million Syrians have fled their country. And there are predators, determined to exploit this tragic exodus, although some of the most successful traffickers say they are acting out of the most humane of motives.
The New York Times carries a report by Ceylan Yeginsu on migrant smuggling in the south of Turkey and interviews one of the most successful smugglers who charges 500 dollars per person to transfer refugees from the Turkish Mediterranean cost to Italy in cargo ships. Once close to the Italian coastline the smugglers immobilise their boats on the assumption that the Italian coast guard will have no choice but to take in those adrift in the sea.
“Last year, 200,000 migrants — over half of them from Syria and Eritrea — arrived in Europe, up from 63,000 in 2013” says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Syrians coming to Europe via Turkey pay 4.000 up to 6.000 $ for a ticket. “With everything we have seen and been through, we are prepared to sacrifice everything just to get to a better place,” a refugee explains.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/world/europe/promise-of-europe-lures-syrian-refugees-and-smugglers-to-turkish-coast.html?src=twr&smid=tw-nytimes
Refusals of abortions in public hospitals due to the Turkish government’s conservative rhetoric can lead to an increasing number of pregnancy-related deaths.
British newspaper The Guardian reports about the refusal of Turkish hospitals to carry out abortions. Only 3 out of 37 public hospitals agreed to perform abortions, even though allowed by Turkish law up until the 10th week, according to the feminist group Purple Roof. This constitutes a “de-facto ban”, as nearly none of the doctors in the public hospitals are willing to carry out abortions without a medical emergency. Some 12 of the surveyed hospitals refused to terminate a pregnancy in any circumstance.
The women’s shelter organization fears that an illegalization will lead to a return to the bad old days when women without access to a private clinic resorted to unsafe or self-induced terminations. “According to the Turkish Doctors Union Women’s Health Branch, only 2% of pregnancy-related deaths are the result of unsafe abortion methods today, while the number stood at 50% in the 1950s,” the article says.
President Erdoğan called birth control a threat to the Turkish blood line and compared abortion to murder.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/04/istanbul-hospitals-refuse-abortions-government-attitude