Erdoganist crackdown on opponents under terrorism pretext
Two American media outlets called on the new American administration led by Joe Biden to confront the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who uses his anti-terrorism speech to suppress the opposition and put them in prisons and detention centers. Journalists Ervin Cutler and Anis Kanter said on the CNN website that “Erdogan took advantage of the killing of 13 Turkish men held in Iraq to suppress the opposition, under the name of fighting terrorism, and foremost among them leaders of the Democratic Peoples Party.”
The report pointed to the need for the United States to stand in the face of Erdogan’s exploitation of anti-US terminology and to accuse the United States itself, something that Biden should prevent completely. It pointed to the huge Turkish government expenditure on suppressing freedoms and opposition, which reached 785 academics who were tried on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda just to sign an open letter promoting peace in the south-east of the country in 2016.
“In the last five years, about 6,000 academics have been rapidly dismissed as part of a wider purge campaign,” the report said. This year, Turkey arrested more than 560 students for peacefully demonstrating against Erdogan’s appointment of a government financier, who did not elect or meet academic standards, as president of the University of Bogazici, which is considered Turkish Harvard. He pointed out that over the past years, Turkey has ranked first among the most repressive countries in the world, with more than 200 journalists in prison on one charge, including supporting or promoting terrorism. One in six journalists is facing trial in Turkey, where the government also suppresses social media. Thousands can be arrested and charged with insulting the president or spreading terrorist propaganda.
Human rights organizations say that hundreds of people are being investigated or detained by police for social media posts believed to be “inciting fear and panic” from the Coronavirus, which includes criticism of the government’s response to the epidemic. The two journalists report that more than 40000000, according to government figures released in July 2020, about 133,000 people were subjected to criminal investigation, and 58,000 were to be tried on terrorism charges in Gulen-related cases, including 26,000 in prison.
Finally, the writers stressed the need for the new US administration to act to stop this repressive campaign led by the Erdogan regime against the country’s dissidents. Erdogan and repression of activists:
785 academics are being prosecuted on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda
560 students detained for demonstrating against Erdogan
200 journalists in prison for promoting terrorism
133,000 Turks who have been subjected to criminal investigation
58,000 who have been interrogated on charges of terrorism,
26,000 who are being held in prison on terrorism charges”
