Tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets are the ways for Erdogan to take control over Turkish media. This blatant display of force demonstrates how far Turkey’s increasingly autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will go to solidify his power and pursue his vendetta against the adversary he fears most.
In short, journalism is in coma in Turkey. Erdogan’s administration doesn’t seem to tolerate any criticism at all. It is impossible to do real journalism in Turkey right now. Any journalist, would they criticize Erdogan, risks to be imprisoned and legally harassed. Zaman daily was the largest circulating newspaper in Turkey and it is now assigned to a government trustee. It was essentially a politically motivated government takeover. The next day a paper which was critical of Erdogan became Erdogan’s mouthpiece.
Erdogan’s drive toward dictatorship threatens to fracture Turkey’s 72 million people along religious, ethnic and ideological lines, imperiling its critically important role as a regional stabilizer and in the war against terrorism.
Many prefer to view Erdogan’s actions as whimsical or as contrary to the wishes of the United States or NATO. According to this narrative, Erdogan is a madman but he is acting on his own. This is a mistake.
Erdogan’s Turkey is very convenient for NATO. It serves as the tool by which to assert both Turkish and NATO’s strategic objectives. Turkey is both the provocateur and the bait. If Turkish actions were whimsical and undesirable, would the US and NATO not condemn them at once rather than offer Erdogan their backing? He has served his own interests and the interests of NATO, not of the Turkish people. All under the banner of “Neo-Ottomanism.”
Ataturk heritage today 