War on Words

How Erdoḡan transformed Turkey into the biggest "jail" for journalists in the world to safeguard his rule

Created on July 16 2018
Words and visuals by Eirini Christodoulaki

Journalist Abdullah Bozkurt is quite clear about the ruthlessness of the Turkish government: “The police detained my 79-year old mother and ransacked her place on my account, only to release her later”, he says. He confesses that the AKP regime will not hesitate to pressure members of the family of a journalist in order to force them to stop their critical writings about Recep Tayyip Erdoḡan’s undemocratic ruling.

Having lived the majority of 2015 and 2016 in fear and uncertainty while waiting to be prosecuted because of his critical writings against Erdoḡan, Bozkurt was one of the 119 journalists that managed to escape Turkey for Europe or the USA. However, 520 others were not so lucky: they remained in Turkey, either in jail or in pre-trial detention, facing all kinds of restrictions imposed by the AKP.

After the failed military coup attempt in July 2016, the Turkish President was given the best pretext to prosecute all opposing voices to his regime. For Erdoḡan, the state emergency degrees are the best tools to annihilate from Turkey all opposition to his rule. The numbers of the purge are quite brutal: more than 130.000 civil servants have been detained, more than 5.800 academics lost their jobs, the army was cleansed from every element that was considered to belong to Fethullah Gülen’s network (Hizmet). The biggest victim of the purge after the failed junta to this day remains the press.

Once hailed by the West as a “prototype democracy” for the Muslim countries in the Middle East, the last five years - after the Gezi Park protests - the AKP regime has shifted towards to a more authoritarian rule.

“Erdoḡan sees independent, critical and opposition media as a major impediment before his project of transforming Turkey from a parliamentary democracy to an autocratic regime with no public accountability and no “checks and balances”, says Bozkurt.

A timeline of the media purges

Koza Ipek Group

In October 2015, the Turkish government confiscated Koza Ipek Group's media organs.

October 2015

Feza Group media takeover

The Turkish government takes over the control of one of the biggest daily newspapers, Zaman and its english edition Today's Zaman.The takeover was motivated by the newspaper's ties to the Hizmet movement of Fethullah Gülen.

Friday, 4 March 2016

Assassination attempt of Can Dundar

Turkish journalist Can Dundar, editor in-chief of the newspaper Cumhurriyet, survives a gun attack while he is taken to a courtroom. Cumhurriyet gave evidence to the public revealing that AKP was suppling artilery to extremist military groups in Syria.

Friday, 6 May 2016

Failed Coup Attempt

Turkey survives a military coup attempt.

Friday, 15 July 2016

State of Emergency

A few days after the failed coup attempt, the government enacts the state of emergency. Onwards, the country will be governed with Presidential emergency degrees. Initially placed for three months, the state of emergency will be renewed seven times until July 2018.

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Closing down broadcasters

20 TV and Radio stations are closed down by the government.

September 2016

Print Press prosecuted

18 periodicals and the prominent opposing newspaper Özgür Gündem close down. The newspaper was seized in August.

October - November 2016

Constitutional Referendum

A constitutional referendum was held throughout Turkey on whether to approve proposed amendments to the constitution. The amendments brought forward by AKP and MHP included the shift to an executive style presidency and a presidential system.

Sunday, 16 April 2017

Press accreditation

Until December 2017, the Turkish government had removed 780 press cards from journalists and media personnel.

December 2017

Citizen journalists under fire

Around 300 people are detained because of critical posts they made on social media, criticisizing the government's decision to start a second military operation in Syria.

January 2018

Doğan Media Group

In March 2018, it is announced that the last major secular opposing media group to Erdogan, is negotiating to sell its media to the pro-Erdogan Demirören Group. The last three years Dogan's media were under heavy scrutiny due to their critical writings of the government.

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Turkish Snap Elections

The elections are held 16 months ahead of schedule under the state of emergency. The future of the economy as well as the political opposition are factors for the snap polls. AKP loses 7%of its majority but retains the parliamentary majority thanks to the alliace with the MHP.

Sunday, 24 June 2018

"The first day of the new Turkey"

The new governance system is enacted with the inauguration of Erdogan. In his first presidential decree he abolises the Directorate of Press and Information that distributes press passes. From now on, the President's office will be the authority to hand press passes to all journalists in the country.

Monday, 9 July 2018

Estimates of the exact number of journalists in Turkish prisons vary. The Committee to Protect Journalists claimed that as of December 2017, 73 journalists were behind bars. Later that month, the Journalist’s Union of Turkey claimed that 149 journalists were in prison; Reporters without Borders reported that 100 were incarcerated; and the NGO “Platform for Justice” reported that as of last November, 153 journalists were behind bars.

As of 22 June 2018, according to the “Stockholm Centre for Freedom”,383 journalists are arrested, convicted or are wanted by the state. The prosecution of the press in Turkey, helped Erdoḡan to consolidate his power, subordinate the judiciary and rule, more often than not, as he pleases.

Many people living abroad speak against the violation of human rights and the incarceration of journalists in Turkey

Antonia Byatt, Director English PEN

At the same time, he was able to avoid criticism about the economic performance of the country, that currently is in an overheating phase. The economy and the reaction of the people is what concerns Erdoḡan the most.

“Economy is the number one concern for most, and only small educated segments [of the society] pay attention to the persecution of the media"

Abdullah Bozkurt

Erdoḡan tries to keep the reactions about the economic performance at a minimum level. He knows that the only way he can lose his power is bad economic performance and a new economic crisis. The economy has always been Turkey’s Achilles’ heel; for the past six decades every major economic crisis in Turkey would end up in political instability and a successful military intervention.

With all major media outlets by his side, Erdoḡan can control all dissident voices to his policies and accuse the “interest lobbies” that “ try to tamper” with Turkey’s “good” economy. Analysts estimate that the Turkish President will do everything in his power to preserve his position, even if that means that he has to intimidate further the people and indeed turn the country into the biggest “jail” for journalists and writers in the world.

The West Reacts

The severe violations of freedom of expression and freedom of thought have made Turkey’s allies in the west wary. The deteriorating situation in human rights in Turkey is underlined through a series of international reports.

English PEN is one of the organisations that advocate against the continuous prosecution of journalists and writers in Turkey.

Protest outside Dowining Street during Erdoḡan's visit in the UK // Photo ©EiriniChristodoulaki
Protest outside Dowining Street during Erdoḡan's visit in the UK // Photo ©EiriniChristodoulaki

The director of English PEN, Antonia Byatt, says that even if the restrictions of freedom of expression in Turkey are not so violent as they were in the 1980s and the 1990s, there is still a big issue.

“The use of anti-terror laws [against writers] is being very consistent”, Byatt says and highlights the fact that writers and journalists are the groups of people that fight the most in Turkey against the violation of their rights.

Many people living abroad speak against the violation of human rights and the incarceration of journalists in Turkey

Antonia Byatt

Byatt explains that the social media campaign #FreeTurkeyMedia has attracted people from all over the world. These people are manifesting their solidarity with the jailed journalists and writers and voice their concerns over the deterioration of human rights in the country.

In May, Erdoḡan visited the UK. The day he met with the British Prime Minister, human rights organisations, human rights defenders, Turks living abroad and citizens gathered outside No.10 to protest against the severe human right violations in Turkey.

“Journalism is not a crime!Journalism is not a crime! Free Turkey media!”, they chanted.

“Journalism is not a crime! Blogging is not a crime! What is a crime? Imprisoning people who [with] their writings try to keep their government accountable”, the protesters continued.

They will remain outside the Prime Ministry for more than eight hours.

Antonia Byatt speaks to protesters // Video ©EiriniChristodoulaki

Nevertheless, the reality inside Turkey is different. The vast majority of Turks is preoccupied with their budgets and how to make ends meet at the end of the month. For them, Erdoḡan still represents economic stability and the opportunity to have a job, thus they support him.

However, the economic sizes are not so helpful for the AKP government. Unemployment is high, and the actual growth of the county is lower than projected.

At the same time, the current account deficit is widening, the Turkish Lira keeps falling against the dollar and even the inflation rate hit a 14-year high at 15.34% in June.

Additionally, Turkey has undertaken many great infrastructure projects that might need more funding in the near future, thus making new external loans a possibility.

Analysts estimate that Erdoḡan is terrified that his house of cards build on a false narrative, religious zealotry and nationalist euphoria, would come tumbling down when it is exposed to the light of truth.

Other Turkish analysts believe that Erdoḡan was only buying more time with the snap election of June 24. If he had waited for another 16 months before he called the elections, it is projected that the economic outlook would have worsened and that would mean greater loss of votes.

Indeed, days after the election rating agency Fitch downgraded Turkey’s outlook to negative citing the deterioration of economic policy credibility.

Supporters of Erdoḡan in London,15 May 2018 //Photo ©EiriniChristodoulaki

A bleak future?

The snap election saw Erdoḡan losing 7% of his votes in the parliamentary election. The Turkish President knows that this loss was not directly connected to the economy because he was able to shift the discussion during the electoral campaign into other topics. The wide network of media outlets that his family influences have helped him in that respect.

From the electoral results it is obvious that Turkey has not lost all hope to become again a country open to all different voices. There is still a 25% - 30% in Turkey that is socioeconomically more developed and cares about freedoms. These people will keep fighting for the freedom of expression and against any type of injustice.

Erdoḡan’s biggest fear remains the truth, a truth that will come from any opposing voice to his rule. His solution will be the same as before; he will restrict further the freedom of expression and continue to intimidate and prosecute journalists, writers, and all dissident voices.

To that extent, his decision to abolish the Directorate of Press and Information under the new governance system comes as a no surprise.

Henceforth, it will be Erdoğan’s office that will be issuing national press cards for journalists, local or foreign ones.

Under this new regime for the press in Turkey, a new type of threats has arisen against all media personnel who oppose Erdoğan.

Supporters of Erdoḡan during his inauguration on July 9th,2018 // From TRT1Haber,Screenshot by Eirini Christodoulaki
Erdoğan arriving in the Presidential Palace after his inauguration//From TRT1, screenshot by Eirini Christodoulaki

A few days after the 24 June elections, journalist Murat Yektin reported that Alaattin Çakıcı, an imprisoned mafia leader, had threatened six columnists and the owner of a newspaper because they supported Erdoğan’s opposition.

In an open letter, Çakıcı urged “those who love”him, to “punish” them. Later, Yektin reported that the Ankara prosecutions office launched a probe against Çakıcı because “of threatening people with death and causing public disturbance”.

It is worthy to highlight that weeks before the national election of June 24, Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and main ally of Erdoğan, called multiple times the Turkish President to award amnesty to Çakıcı. The President refused.

Nobody can know, if this is a case of “carrot and stick” regarding the safety of journalists in Turkey, or if it was a warning to all media personnel to stop being critical of the AKP - MHP policies.

We can be sure, however, that as AKP secures one more tenure in office a new type of threat comes to put journalists and writers under pressure.