SLIPPING IN TURKEY: AN ISLAMIST GOVERNMENT’S COMMITMENT TO DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES IS LOOKING SHAKY
The Washington Post
November 23, 2009 Monday
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN has been the protagonist of an epic liberalization
of politics in Turkey. The victory of his mildly Islamist AK Party
in a 2002 general election was itself a breakthrough; even more so
was his government’s defeat of repeated attempts by the military and
courts to remove it from power. Mr. Erdogan is pushing through historic
reforms of Turkey’s treatment of its Kurdish minority and recently
took a major step toward opening the country’s border with Armenia.
Yet, as his tenure lengthens, it is becoming evident that Mr. Erdogan’s
commitment to democratic principles and Western values is far from
complete. As Turkey’s prospects of joining the European Union have
dimmed, the government’s foreign policy has taken a nasty turn: Shrill
denunciations of Israel have been accompanied by increasing coziness
with the criminal rulers of Iran, Syria and Sudan. Mr. Erdogan recently
declared that Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been
indicted for war crimes in Darfur, was welcome in Turkey because
"a Muslim can never commit genocide."
Even more concerning is Mr. Erdogan’s treatment of the Turkish media.
Frustrated by hostility toward his government by media conglomerates
that formed part of Turkey’s traditional secular establishment,
the prime minister and his allies have resorted to increasingly
heavy-handed measures. Two years ago a forced sale of the country’s
second-biggest newspaper placed it in the hands of a company headed
by Mr. Erdogan’s son-in-law. Once critical, it is now predictably
pro-government.
Now the government is threatening to destroy Turkey’s largest
media company, Dogan Yayin. The conglomerate, which controls seven
newspapers, 28 magazines and three television channels — including
Turkey’s version of CNN — has been hit with an escalating series of
tax bills based on questionable audits of past filings. The latest
one, delivered in September, now stands at some $3.3 billion —
a sum greater than the value of Dogan Yayin and its parent company.
Faced with sharp criticism by the European Union, Mr. Erdogan
and his foreign minister have insisted that the tax bills are a
"technical matter"; in one interview the prime minister compared them
to the tax case brought against gangster Al Capone. The parallel was
unintentionally revealing. Mr. Erdogan’s real problem is not with
the company’s supposed tax evasion but with its tough reporting on
his government — beginning with reports about an Islamic charity
that may have illegally funneled money to his party.
Turkish journalists say that a pall of fear has fallen across
their business. Editors practice self-censorship. Many journalists
are believed to be among the more than 100,000 people whose phones
have been tapped by the government in recent years. Some, including
the chief executive of Dogan Yayin, have been swept up in a murky
investigation of alleged coup plotting.
Mr. Erdogan and his party were once seen by many in Washington as a
model for how pious Muslims could practice democratic politics. That
image is rapidly darkening. If it is not to be extinguished, Mr.
Erdogan must stop coddling Muslim dictators — and stop following
their practice of silencing domestic opposition.