MORE TURKISH FREE SPEECH HYPOCRISY
by Michael Rubin
Commentary Magazine
Feb 7 2012
The Swiss government has started an inquiry into a statement by Egemen
BagıÅ~_, Turkey’s minister for European Union affairs, in which
BagıÅ~_ stated that the Armenians suffered no genocide. According to
a report in the Turkish press, BagıÅ~_ said, “There is no Armenian
genocide. Let them arrest me.” Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag
commented on the incident, “Can’t a minister of a country express
his views speaking in another country? It’s ridiculous.”
While I’m not in favor of laws restricting the speech, no matter how
wrong the speaker, BagıÅ~_ and Bozdag’s stand is rich considering
that BagıÅ~_ – with the apparent blessing of Namik Tan, the Turkish
ambassador in Washington – tried to sue me into silence after I wrote
a series of articles criticizing Turkish government policies. Turkish
officials believe in free speech for themselves, but seek to censor
when speech is used to challenge their ideas.
The reality today is that, despite BagıÅ~_ and Tan’s best efforts,
the only place Turks or Turkish analysts enjoy free speech is outside
of Turkey. Hence, as Jonathan noted yesterday, in order to defend
free speech, Kemal Kılıcdaroglu, the chairman of the Republican
Peoples Party, the largest secular party in Turkey, took to the pages
of The Washington Post rather than a Turkish outlet. As Kılıcdaroglu
explained:
Turkey today is a country where people live in fear and are divided
politically, economically and socially. Our democracy is regressing
in terms of the separation of powers, basic human rights and freedoms
and social development and justice. Citizens worry deeply about their
future. These points are, sadly, reflected in most major international
indexes, such as Human Rights Watch, which rank Turkey quite low in
terms of human rights, democracy, freedoms and equality.
Just as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarrassed herself by
labeling Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad a reformer, President Obama
embarrasses himself by calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
a friend. Should Obama and Clinton embrace Turkey as a model for
the Arab Spring, then he is condemning another generation of Arabs
to repression.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
