Turkey Right Now

[Cookie Eating Huskarl]

Could he had played a part in establishing prior approval to level of paranoia and violence shown by the coppers?

 

[Untitled.]

Probably. Doesn't mean he told them "go and maltreat journalists to show the world the power of Turkey" or whatever.

 

[Cookie Eating Huskarl]

Now that's just an unfair statement. Anyone worth their salt in politicking know it's insisting the journalist shouldn't be there (For their own safety wink wink nudge nudge), or shutting down bad press rather than telling them to go kick journalist around for the nationalistic glory of Turkistan.

 

[Goker]

Erdoğan has been allowing and encouraging people to pressure journalists recently so it isn't odd that the police would try to harass Ivan Watson. I think it would have been worse if he had been with the BBC.

About the pressurization of journalists, see this blog post. http://istanbulian.blogspot.com.tr/2014/05/turkeys-war-on-media-goes-international.html

BBC had some problems with the government and the pro-government media recently after Erdoğan claimed that BBC hired actors to pose as Soma miners' widows. The women filmed by BBC at a cemetery say they had previously voted for Erdoğan but they changed their minds after the disaster. They wanted to remain anonymous.

One of the pro-govt newspapers, Yeni Şafak, published a story claiming that one of the pretenders were Birgül Salman. They posted pictures of her and the other pro-govt newspapers also followed suit. Salman went to court saying that she wasn't in the video and the court found the pro-govt newspapers guilty of slander and etc. However, The Telecommunications Directorate, which still hasn't unbanned Youtube even after Turkey's top court found the ban unconstitutional 3 days ago, has failed to comply with the court order to block public access to the articles in question.

 

[Mandalorian]

When I get older...
http://vimeo.com/69011454
HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF GEZİ

 

[Mandalorian]

I do not think that Turkish police kicks his butt purposely, they just start kicking automatically when someone falls down, that is how they promote themselves.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

I think that's the general default human reaction to someone who has fallen down and isn't perceived as friendly.

 

[Mage246]

Stop criticizing their culture, you racist Western imperialist pigdog!

 

[Mandalorian]

**** conservative turkish islamic culture

 

[Dodes]

The government has confirmed that anyone who says that is a hired actor.

 

[Goker]

Wonder how much he could personally affect that. His part comes after the fact that it happened. Such as acknowledging that it happened, apologizing, damning it etc. The consequences of what he says determines whether or not he acted foolishly in that situation.

Erdoğan calls Ivan Watson of CNN an "agent"

"That CNN International lackey is trying to do something there. He made an eight-hour broadcast during last year’s Gezi events. Why? To stir up trouble in my country. This year, they have been caught red-handed,”

“Those don’t have anything to do with independent and impartial media. They have been given tasks. They are agents,”

By the way, the ban on Youtube has been lifted today. Banned on March 27. Ankara court ordered the lifting ban on April 4. Constitutional Court ordered the lifting on May 29. The ban was lifted today, June 3rd.

The government doesn't even care about the court orders. Good grief.

 

[Untitled.]

 

[Cookie Eating Huskarl]

Of all the ways to handle foreign press. He might as well arrest the whole CNN team and waterboard them now.

Edit: Coming from a very politically biased country, reading Edragon's speech made me realize something. Whenever politicians start ignoring occam's razor and start sounding more like tin foil hats wearers, either the country itself is filled with stupid, or that political party is now only surviving on the support of actual stupid people.

 

[Sir Saladin]

CNN always covers one story at a time for several days or weeks in a row even if they have nothing new to report in all that time. It may be hard to believe but it's true.

Unfortunately CNN and MSNBC are no longer independent and no one who works for those organizations is allowed to say anything critical of the U.S. president, they used to be better than that but now they are like the Democratic party's version of Fox News. Of course the reporters who work for those organizations haven't reached "agent" status yet.

 

[Cioss]

Edragon

Well, thats hilarious. RT Edragon, lord of the 21 century's dragons and PM of Turkey.

 

[Goker]

Yes, E-Dragon, waging war against Youtube and Twitter.

 

[Fehnor]

http://www.bianet.org/english/human-rights/156118-our-new-paramilitaries-trust-teams

If I were to protest in Turkey while Erdogan is in office, I would buy a ****load of blue hats and backpacks and hand them out to everyone I saw.

 

[Mandalorian]

lol  that would be a nice trolling

 

[Sir Rivenal]

we were infamous.what a pity!

 

[Jhessail]

Turkey has bought a million barrels of oil directly from the Kurds in North-Iraq. The Iraqi government is not happy, and is threatening trade embargo against anyone who buys oil directly from the Kurds.