Tag: erdogan

Turkey’s Long Awaited Ataturk Cultural Center to Open in 2020

Posted on by webmaster

Turkey’s Minister for Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announced on Thursday that the long awaited Ataturk Cultural Center in Istanbul will open by the end of 2020. The center will include a theater with seating for up to 800 people, cinemas, exhibition spaces, and a world-class opera hall that will seat over 2,000. 

The center, which sits at the site of the previous Ataturk Cultural Center, closed since 2008, is considered an important step in advancing the art and culture scenes in Turkey. The project will also revitalize the streets around the center, which the government plans will be home to cafes, restaurants, and art galleries. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan first announced the venture in November 2017. 

A controversial project 

The new culture center is not without controversy, with Germany’s DW reporting in 2018 that the project exposed “deep political divides” in Turkey. 

Prior to the announcement of the new center in 2017, members of Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) argued that the cultural center should be demolished and in 2013, during the Gezi Park protests, the abandoned center became a “symbol of resistance to AKP rule.” Protestors occupied the center’s roof and hung banners critical of the government from its facade.

The previous Ataturk Cultural Center opened in 1969 and was, at the time, the fourth largest cultural center in the world. Hosting musicians and theatre troupes from around the world, the center expressed “the lofty western cultural aspirations of the ‘Kemalist’ elites who forwarded the ideology of the secular founders of the Republic of Turkey.” 

Activists and opposition parties accuse President Erdogan and the AKP of undermining the secularism embedded in the Turkish constitution by the Republic of Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The recent announcement by Erdogan of plans to reconvert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque has furthered fears that secularism no longer has a place in modern Turkey. 

The Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum in 1935 by Ataturk and is a major tourist attraction in Istanbul, attracting approximately three million visitors per year. 

This suspicion of creeping Islamism, mixed with Erdogan’s nationalism and nostalgia for the Ottoman era, saw concerns raised over the design of the new center in 2017 which features a red-glass sphere over the entrance. Critics interpreted the sphere as being representative of the cupola of a mosque.  

A restrictive political and cultural context

The political and cultural landscape has changed considerably since the grand opening of the first Ataturk Cultural Center in 1969 with the AKP accused of restricting artistic freedom and freedom of expression since first coming to power in 2003. 

These restrictions are reported to have continued in recent months with the president using the coronavirus crisis to crack down on the few remaining opposition media outlets in the country. 

Within the context of suppressing independent voices, many remain skeptical of the center’s ability to support culture and art in the country. Earlier this month, a Turkish court sentenced Kurdish singer Azad Bedran to three years and nine months in prison. The court deemed the singer’s songs and concerts “propaganda for a terrorist organisation.” 

Bedran’s sentencing follows the arrest of fellow Kurdish singer and dual German citizen Hozan Cane last year for similar charges. Cane’s case is yet to be heard by a court and she remains remanded in custody. 

Erdogan Furious as Twitter Removes Turkish Suspicious Influence Accounts

Posted on by webmaster

On Friday, Twitter Security announced it has permanently removed 32,200 accounts linked to the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and Turkey for various violations of Twitter’s platform manipulation policies.  

Twitter said it detected the Turkish network of 7,340 accounts in early 2020, as well as involved accounts employing “coordinated inauthentic activity” aimed at a domestic Turkish audience.  

“Based on our analysis of the network’s technical indicators and account behaviours, the collection of fake and compromised accounts was being used to amplify political narratives favorable to the AK Parti, and demonstrated strong support for President Erdogan,” the social media platform said.  

“These compromised accounts have been repeated targets of account hacking and takeover efforts by the state actors identified above. The broader network was also used for commercial activities, such as cryptocurrency-related spam,” Twitter explained. 

The major account take-down has infuriated Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan. The strong-man president slammed the removal and said Twitter’s accusations were untrue. 

“(This) has demonstrated yet again that Twitter is no mere social media company, but a propaganda machine with certain political and ideological inclinations,” Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said.  

Turkish cyber rights expert Yaman Akdeniz said the network appeared to be made up of relatively inactive bots and requires further investigation.  

“But it makes it official that bots are used in Turkey for political purposes,” he told Reuters.  

Twitter said it has shared details of the disabled accounts with research partners Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and the US-based Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) for further evaluation. 

Outside of the Turkish network, the bulk of the freshly-disabled accounts were linked to China. Twitter removed a new network 23,750 accounts that comprised the “core network,” and an additional 150,000 accounts that were “amplifiers.” 

“They were Tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China (CCP), while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong,” Twitter revealed.   

The social media platform explained Friday’s take-down is part of its “site integrity efforts,” adding it is “the most critical work we do at Twitter to protect the public conversation.”

 

Turkey Takes Potential Step Towards Fascism by Empowering ‘Watchmen’

Posted on by webmaster

“I want to hear the whistles of night watchmen while I am sleeping,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in 2016, following the failed coup attempt in Turkey. His wish will now come true, as Turkish parliament on Thursday, June 10, approved a government-led bill to empower a growing force of ‘night watchmen.’

The bill passed after a heated debate that dissolved into physical violence, with an opposition parliamentarian claiming to have been punched by a lawmaker from the governing coalition.

The new bill will allow the Erdogan-aligned auxiliary force to use firearms, stop vehicles, and perform stop-and-search procedures on citizens without cause. The new powers came into force following a recent tripling of the watchmen’s numbers, from 8,000 to 25,000.

What are the watchmen?

For months the Turkish government has been steadily increasing the size and powers of the ‘Bekci,’ an irregular force that traditionally patrolled neighborhoods and performed menial religious duties, such as announcing the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. The force was disbanded in 2008, with its members integrated into the country’s already sizable police force.

But, following the 2016 coup attempt, Erdogan decided to reinstate the Bekci, recruiting thousands into what the political opposition has called Erdogan’s “loyal militia” or a potential “morality police.” The night watchmen has since grown from 4,000 to 21,000 members, adding to an already heavy police presence in Turkey.

The Bekci, which operate at night, have become an intense topic of debate. Ankara shopkeepers in 2018 protested the growing force by closing their shops earlier to avoid their customers being harassed and interrogated by the loosely-regulated night watchmen. The Bekci are often seen as an extension of the ruling coalition’s conservative values and the government’s intent to enforce these values.

Echoes from the past

Erdogan’s ruling party appears to be using nostalgia over the Bekci’s former reputation as a benevolent and friendly neighborhood watch to build support for his irregular force. The pre-2008 Bekci were often referred to as “uncle watchmen” and featured as the heroes in books and movies.

Columnist Elif Cakir of the Islamist newspaper Karar expressed concern in January over the force’s potential future role, writing: “If the issue goes beyond nostalgia, then is there a need for the watchmen? And if so, what is it?”

Turkey already had 524 police officers for every 100,000 citizens in 2012, more than most Western countries, and commentators have asked what purpose the new auxiliary force will fulfill. With no discernible public order crisis, many fear the Bekci will comprise a parallel police force, loyal to Erdogan.

Historic similarities

The forming of an armed force that answers to the ruling party is bringing back echoes of a problematic chapter in history. The images of rows of uniformed recruits appear eerily similar to black-and-white photographs of Italy’s “voluntary national security militia,” dubbed the “blackshirts” after they became the paramilitary wing of Benito Mussolini’s fascist party.

Like Erdogan’s Bekci, the blackshirts similarly consisted of nationalists, conservatives, and right-wing supporters who slowly became a violent militia that cemented Mussolini’s power in the decades leading up to the Second World War.

Another problematically similar force was Adolf Hitler’s paramilitary force. Similar to the formation of the Bekci, these forces were intended to create a loyal force parallel to existing state forces, which eventually became part of the power on which a fascist state was built.

While much remains unclear about Erdogan’s intentions with the night watchmen, it can only be considered troubling to see their powers expanded in the absence of a public order crisis that could warrant such moves. With little practical opposition to the rise of the night watchmen, their role in Turkish politics could be an indicator that tumultuous times are ahead for the Turkish people.

Turkey Issues Gulen-Linked Arrest Warrants for Military, Police Officers

Posted on by webmaster

Government prosecutors in Turkey have issued warrants for the arrests of 118 individuals, primarily from its military and police forces. Ankara is accusing 42 members of the military and the national gendarmerie of cooperation with prominent cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The accusations are based on confessions from the interrogation of suspects arrested earlier, as well as “analyses of pay phone calls.” The arrests include 24 officers that were working on active duty up to the moment the state issued the warrants.

Military members

An additional 76 military, gendarmerie, and civilian individuals are targeted for allegedly using pay phones to contact members of Gulen’s organization. The issued warrants request the immediate arrest of members of the military, navy, and air force and include a colonel and three lieutenants.

The arrest warrants are similar to those issued in July 2016, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cracked down on alleged supporters of Gulen following a failed military coup. In 2016, Ankara suspended 150,000 civil servants, military personnel, and civilians, leading to them losing their jobs because the government considered them to be supporters of the exiled cleric.

Turkish state media Anadolu Agency reported that 72 suspects had been detained after an operation that involved simultaneous raids in 35 provinces across Turkey. Anadolu Agency called the arrests an “anti-terror” operation and reiterated the alleged connection to what the Turkish state calls the “Fethullah Terrorist Organization.”

State repression

The state has accused the arrested suspects of trying to overthrow the Turkish regime through the infiltration of the country’s security forces, military, and judiciary. But many experts accuse the Turkish state of a “dramatic erosion of its rule of law and democracy framework.”

Human rights NGO Human Rights Watch has stated that since the 2016 crackdown, Turkey is “experiencing a deepening human rights crisis.” The watchdog is expressing concerns over the misuse of terrorism charges used to jail opposition figures and dissenting voices in Turkish society.

Amnesty International fears the use of anti-terrorism laws are used “in the absence of evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, to silence real or perceived dissent.” Amnesty also highlights the increased censorship in Turkish media, including the new licensing laws and criminal prosecutions intended to silence social media criticism.

Most Popular