Author: Hunanian Jack

AL-Monitor
February 9, 2022
[Taking relations with Ankara one step at a time, Jerusalem could opt
for a soft-diplomatic multi-national alliance with Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.]
Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Herzog met Feb. 3 with
Turkish Ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan, considered a close associate of
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The two met at a dinner hosted by Azerbaijan ambassador to Washington
Khazar Ibrahim, who also invited the ambassadors from Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan.
It was an unusual event. Israel maintains diplomatic relations with
all the four countries, but ties are complicated.
With Turkey, relations have been cold for over a decade, though
Turkish leadership has been trying in recent months to change that.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called Israeli President
Isaac Herzog twice, first to congratulate him on taking office, and
then to express his condolences for the death of his mother. Herzog
called Erdogan to wish him well after the Turkish leader got infected
with coronavirus. In recent days, Erdogan said more than once that he
expects a visit from Herzog in Ankara next month.
Bilateral ties with Azerbaijan have been particularly warm for many
years. Still, following the Nagorno-Karabakh 2020 conflict and
accusations by Armenia that Israel supplied its rival with attack
drones and other weapons, these ties have come under public scrutiny.
Relations with Uzbekistan are of particular importance to Israel
because of its proximity to Iran. The Jewish community there is one of
the oldest in the world, and the two countries have nurtured
development cooperation projects in recent years. As token of
friendship and support, Israel’s ambassador to the country, Zehavit
Ben Hillel, delivered a significant contribution of anti-COVID medical
equipment to the children’s hospital of Tashkent last month.
Kazakhstan is also significant for Israel strategically. The two
countries maintain close contacts in the defense and intelligence
sectors. Israel’s newly appointed Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Edwin
Yabo, just marked 30 years to bilateral diplomatic ties.
Reportedly, Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, was the one
who initiated the meeting, after discussing it beforehand separately
with all parties. His idea was simple – to build up a soft-diplomacy
alliance in fields such as cultural exchange or preservation of Jewish
heritage in central Asia. When such a cooperation would be put in
place, the five countries could move to more ambitious multinational
cooperation in trade, energy and even security.
For Jerusalem, the idea is interesting. Deepening alliances with
Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is strategically important
because of Iran, but also because of other issues such as purchasing
oil, selling security equipment, and enhancing Israel’s trade
relations. Getting Turkey into the picture, of course, has an added
value for Israel. It would enable Jerusalem to test the Turkish water
and see if Ankara is really sincere in its statements in favor of
rapprochement.
These statements, and the amicable phone calls placed recently between
the two presidents, were indeed put to test yesterday. Speaking to
reporters Feb. 8, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, "Any
step we take with Israel regarding our relations, any normalization,
will not be at the expense of the Palestinian cause, like some other
countries," apparently referring to the normalization agreements
signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Another negative sign was the Turkish decision yesterday to charge 16
people, among them Palestinians and Syrians, for espionage. The
decision followed the arrest last October of these students, with
Ankara announcing it had cracked a Mossad spy network. Israeli experts
and media claimed from the beginning the affair was fabricated, and
that Mossad did not operate any such ring. Jerusalem now wonders
what’s really behind this decision, and how come Cavusoglu made his
rather negative statement exactly on the same day as the indictment.
 

ANI News
By John Solomou
Feb. 14, 2022
Nicosia [Cyprus], February 14 (ANI): The Turkish government, under
autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been suppressing press
freedom in the country and has been exercising almost complete control
of the Turkish mass media for many years, but recently it has embarked
on an attempt to control what foreign media report about developments
in Turkey.
Last week, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), which is
Turkey's broadcasting watchdog, has given a 72-hour deadline for the
Turkish services of the international news outlets of Voice of America
(VOA), German Deutsche Welle (DW), and Euronewsto apply for a license.
The deadline was accompanied by the threat that if they failed to
comply and obtain the online broadcasting licenses, they would be
banned. The regulator has the right to go to court, at the expiration
of the deadline, and close down the websites, which feature also video
news.
Bridget Serchak, a Voice of America spokesperson for the US
state-owned broadcaster, said: "VOA believes any governmental efforts
to silence news outlets is a violation of press freedom, a core value
of all democratic societies."
In another statement, the Voice of America declared that it would do
its best to ensure that its audience in Turkey "has free and open
access to the Internet if its Turkish service is blocked by the
Turkish government."
So far, the reaction of the other two international media outlets has
not been disclosed.
Commenting on the decision, Journalist Ilhan Tasci, of the opposition
Republican party, who is also a member of the RTUK, said: "This
decision means that for the first time international broadcasters have
become the target of the media watchdog on in addition to regional
channels. It constitutes in all respects a direct interference with
the freedom of the press."
It should be noted that according to a regulation published in July
2019 "media service providers and internet transmission platform
operators that wish to provide radio or audiovisual services on the
internet are required to obtain a license or authorization from the
Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTSC) according to the type of
service they provide.
Since the new regulation went into effect, various streaming platforms
including Netflix and Amazon Prime have applied for and received
licenses. However, this is the first time that the RTUK used this
authority for the three international news websites.
Erdogan has used RTUK as a tool of increasing censorship as the
broadcasting watchdog frequently imposes punitive sanctions on
independent television and radio stations and websites which are
critical of the Turkish government.
Indicative of the repression of any criticism of Erdogan in the media
is the arrest last month of Sedef Kabas, a well-known journalist for
citing a proverb during a political discussion on opposition TV
channel Tele 1 and repeated on Twitter, which was seen as a swipe at
Turkey's President.
The prosecutor also asked Kabas to be charged with insulting Interior
Minister Suleyman Soylu and Transportation Minister Adil
Karaismailoglu, for a combined jail term of 11 years.
As a Human Rights Watch report published in October 2020 points out:
"Turkey's press freedom crisis is worsening amid growing state capture
of media, the lack of independence of regulatory institutions, and a
new social media law designed to clamp down on the remaining spaces
for free comment...Social media platforms, as well as online news
sites, are among the last bastions for critical journalism in Turkey
following the state-led takeover of mainstream media."
In October 2020, a Turkish court decision declared one of the most
prominent journalists in Turkey, Can Dundar, former editor of
Cumhuriyet, a fugitive and confiscated his assets. Dundar was arrested
in November 2015 after his newspaper published footage showing the
State Intelligence MIT sending weapons to Syrian Islamist fighters.
Since June 2016, he is living in exile in Germany.
The Radio and Television Supreme Council has imposed arbitrary fines
and temporary suspensions of broadcasting of several media outlets
such as Halk TV, Tele 1 TV, and Fox TV, which include content critical
of the government.
In February 2018, a Turkish court sentenced journalists Mehmet Altan,
his brother Ahmet Altan and Nazli Illicak to life imprisonment after
finding them guilty of "involvement in the 2016 coup attempt."
Women journalists in Turkey are in a particularly vulnerable position.
The Coalition For Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) in its report titled:
"Press Freedom Status for Women Journalists" says: "Turkey is one of
the most dangerous countries with cases of legal harassment and
intimidation by the state."
The report sheds light on a total of 77 cases of violations against
women journalists worldwide, in which Turkey leads as the country with
the most frequent cases of legal harassment. 36 of the 77 cases in
total that include murders, abduction, detentions, and physical
assaults were reported in Turkey, followed by Pakistan with nine
cases.
Scores of journalists remain behind bars in Turkey or are continuously
harassed and face a trial because they criticize, even mildly, the
Government or President Erdogan's one-man rule.
Many journalists and people working in the media are in pretrial
detention or serving sentences for terrorism offences because of their
journalistic work.
The state is using the judiciary over which it has increased control
to send to jail its critics on bogus charges, without compelling
evidence of criminal activity. It also misuses the regulatory bodies,
like the RTUK and the Press Advertising Authority (BIK), to punish and
financially cripple independent media.
One can easily see the repression of freedom of thought in Turkey from
the fact that in 2021, just like the previous year, Turkey ranked
first among the 47 Council of Europe (CoE) member states in the number
of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights concerning
violations of freedom of expression.