ArticlesPolitics (Foreign)

Does Turkish government deserve strong criticism?

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Turkey which received a real strong applause from western democracies for a long time – until a short while ago – has been attracting criticism for a while  from some major unbiased sources in those countries.

This criticism is mainly targeted at the pressure exerted on the press, institutions and citizens by the current administration – and the head of government, in specific.

One of the harshest articles to criticize the Turkish government had come from New York Times (inserted below) in 2011 and caused unrest in the Turkish political environments.

When we look at the current situation in this country, it is difficult to say much has gone for the better…

The PM who is under great stress originating from conflicts (and fights) in the region – as well as local ones, does not refrain from criticizing any writer or journalist who expresses opinions the PM is not fond of, using a  harsh language.. and to be even worse the concerned media group (or the newspaper) also receives a message sometimes that they should not employ such writers or journalists etc …

Now, when we recall the hard times Doğan Medya Group (supposed to be a giant organization) had to go through, following the audit performed bythe tax office (because they confronted the government – some claim) it might be quite a risk not to take this hidden warning into consideration.

The PM has always been referring to the virtues of democracy and how they have broken the tutelage exerted by the military until recently and brought “ADVANCED DEMOCRACY” into this country. But in practice, millions of citizens believe the applications exercised by the government fall quite short of what they claim to have accomplished.

The worse is, the stronger the PM gets (he has won many elections, in fact has not lost a single one) the more dictating he becomes – as expressed by many people to include opinion leaders and even some of the loyal journalists supporting Erdoğan and AK Parti as well as experts in the arena of politics.

It is probably quite unlucky of the PM that he does not have a some real powerful colleagues (with strong personality and the guts) to warn him against critical mistakes causing disturbance and unrest in public opinion. Some might call this ” SINGLE MAN” syndrome…

When we look at the issue from another point of view.. that is “if the government has made critical mistakes to put Turkey in trouble in the region or not”, this is a relative question to answer but judging on where Turkey stands in the region now, it can hardly be said this country has performed successfully in foreign relations, recently.

Many people do hope that the prime minister can manage to grow stronger awareness that a human being (regardless of who) is always bound to make mistakes and would be considered lucky to have friends next to him with second opinions to protect him against fatal mistakes as the person behind the steering wheel.

Editor, BTT
13.08.2012

 

Those who would like to read the article published by New York Times in 2011,
please click on link below;
NO WAY TO RUN DEMOCRACY (Published: March 11, 2011)

 

 

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