Comments | talk_politics: Go handle this, Merkel

dreamville_bg in talk_politics

Go handle this, Merkel

Mar 06, 2016 22:07

So, Turkey was supposed to be our buddy now, wasn't it? They were going to keep our borders from the dirty unwashed Middle Eastern refugees, weren't they? In exchange for a few billion euros, that is. Well, guess what. Our new buddies don't give a shit about free speech. Still want to keep that negotiation for EU entry with Turkey, Merkel?

Turkey’ ( Read more... )

turkey, freedom of speech, dictatorship

Comments 49

luvdovz March 6 2016, 20:10:04 UTC

Next up: the opposition parties in Turkey become history, and Erdogan's party wins the next election by 97%. Then Erdogan is declared Supreme Leader for life. Sound familiar?

dreamville_bg March 6 2016, 20:11:45 UTC

No, not at all. I'm hearing it for the first time. Our media don't report on such things. Especially when they're being done by our pals. We're not supposed to discuss this.

luvdovz March 7 2016, 18:56:57 UTC

Well, it's evil opposition anyway. Good riddance, and all.

htpcl March 7 2016, 11:56:39 UTC

Yeah, dear powdered Brussels poodles. Keep being "deeply concerned" and keep "closely monitoring" the situation.

peamasii March 7 2016, 17:54:43 UTC

Zaman Media = conservative religious fundamentalists who are looking for a coup d-etat. Good riddance.

dreamville_bg March 7 2016, 18:28:09 UTC

Erdogan = Power-hungry neo-Ottomanist wannabe-sultan who's looking to become for-life Dear Leader and surround himself with servile cronies while fucking up all his neighbors. Gotta love him for shutting out the mouthpiece of religious fundamentalists, eh?

abomvubuso March 7 2016, 18:39:34 UTC

Zaman was quite outspoken in their comments about Erdogan - which is easy to predict, having in mind who controls the newspaper. Well, I guess that ends that. Hurriyet was the other newspaper that showed at least a little anti-Erdogan bias, but it had its offices conveniently burned a little bit during the recent anti-Kurd pogroms. Erdogan was close friends with Gülen at some point, but since he's not exactly known for his loyalty (just ask Israel, Assad, Putin, etc), this development is hardly a surprise.

As for the fundamentalist media, sure it was. When we're discussing such things the question we should be asking ourselves is, do we cheer at free speech being stomped upon when it happens to people we do not sympathise with, or does free speech actually mean something to us.

luvdovz March 7 2016, 18:43:29 UTC

How does a newspaper inspire a coup d'etat in a country where the president holds all power in a firm grip, all his political rivals are now political corpses and have ended up in jail, and where the previously primary source of coup d'etats, namely the military, has been turned into an obedient puppy to the president? I'd really like to know how Erdogan's actions are not a blatant over-reaction.

ddstory March 7 2016, 18:30:21 UTC

Oh, look. Erdogan is starting to show his true face. He's got some last-minute demands, er, ideas, as he calls them.

luzribeiro March 7 2016, 18:54:06 UTC

It was the same people that were bewailing the fact that Turkey was not being allowed into the EU. Episodes like this one definitely do not help make their case.

underlankers March 8 2016, 04:27:37 UTC

But Poland and Hungary and France are free to suspend civil liberties on a whim and that is what the EU wants? OK.

luzribeiro March 8 2016, 06:55:19 UTC

Yeah, I heard ya the first 12498 times you repeated that.

France is suspending civil liberties? Oookaaay.

underlankers March 8 2016, 14:03:02 UTC

It has and it's codified it into its constitution. When Americans do this to our own suspected terrorists, that's what it's called when we do it. La Belle France doesn't get a pass on it either.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/french-mps-to-vote-on-controversial-changes-to-constitution

Thread 13