Sometimes, people, armies cross oceans, but are destroyed in small rivers when they start to feel self-confident. You have made this country cross oceans, but you are now causing us to drown in small rivers.
Today, Turkey is completely different from the '90s, when summary executions were common, villages would be burned down and widespread and systematic torture was everywhere. But we are still being classified together with China in terms of human rights violations. I know your advisers tell you that this is a part of conspiracy orchestrated against Turkey at the global level in the same way they dub Paul Auster as a pro-Ergenekon author.
If you had read a single novel by Auster, you would have realized that he was not a man that would be on the coat tails of any lobby. From some of his remarks, we understand that Auster has some wrong general assumptions about Turkey. But Turkey's image as a “country where writers are silenced,” as described by Auster, is the image of “new Turkey” that is now quickly spreading.
If you had invited Auster to tea and told him the story of İskilipli Atıf Hoca, who was executed just because he opposed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's “hat revolution,” the great author would have quickly realized what Kemalism really was. But, as for the “silencing of the writers,” I assure you that things are not as easy as they may seem.
Let me try to explain the matter by taking pains to separate the wheat from the chaff. Press freedom in Turkey has started to be discussed intensely in the West, particularly after tens of thousands of cases were launched against members of the press in the wake of the case against Ergenekon. These lawsuits were launched particularly with respect to the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) provisions concerning “breaches of secrecy” and “attempts to influence a fair trial.” Ironically, the overwhelming majority of these cases launched against the journalists who support you. Your bureaucrats opted for putting the blame on the “Ergenekon minded” and they did not move a finger to alleviate this. They forget that these terribly poorly worded articles belong to a law that was passed by your government and that democratic countries do not have such shameful legal provisions. Even in the latest judicial reforms, you chose to introduce cosmetic changes only.
Today, even the killing of Hrant Dink can be marketed to the foreign press as a conspiracy devised by your government. Just have a look at the article in the Guardian on Jan. 27 titled "Turkish journalists are very frightened – but we must fight this intimidation." We all know that this nefarious murder was the work of Ergenekon. But you were overshadowed by this murder by failing to abolish Article 301 of the TCK -- which paved the way for the murder of Dink -- and promoting the police officers who turned a blind eye to the preparations leading up to the murder.
You still failed to amend the Constitution. You put Ergenekon members on trial at the Specially Authorized Courts, which were designed by Ergenekon circles, under the outdated Counterterrorism Law (TMK). This naturally creates an image of a country where “hundreds of journalists” are on trial. If you try Ahmet Şık and Ragıp Zarakolu under the ambiguous provisions in the TMK article concerning “those who are not organization members, but who commit crime on behalf of the organization,” then those fully fledged Ergenekon members can naturally advertise themselves as journalists. Your last reform package does not save us from these articles but simply makes some cosmetic changes.
Some of your personal attitudes play a major role in the formation of a distorted image of Turkey. You find it easy to make remarks about other people, but when the same remarks are made about you, you rush to bring a lawsuit against them. You call a writer “ignorant” or tell a politician, "you know how to kill.” Can the same be said about you or your government in Turkey? Recently, you filed a lawsuit against Ahmet Altan. Why? Why do you launch lawsuits so easily? I wonder if your advisers have reminded you of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Don't your advisers know about the ECtHR's perspective that politicians knowingly put themselves in positions that draw much criticism and therefore should tolerate much harsher criticisms than ordinary citizens? You brought those lawsuits on the grounds that you were insulted, but you were actually being criticized harshly. If someone really insulted you, millions would gather in protest about it.
If you launched those lawsuits because you are personally hurt, why do you demand so much compensation from the defendants? Why not be content with seeking compensation, instead of bringing criminal cases against journalists who are already being strangled by hundreds of other lawsuits? Can a prime minister launch lawsuits against journalists so easily in a democratic country? Let us be honest: Can you and I be equal before a court? Your frequent tendency to resort to lawsuits could be described as use of disproportionate force and intimidation, could it not?
Do you really think that it is beneficial to you to be protected from criticism? If you don't want journalists to publish criticisms of you, as some would refrain from criticizing the military, then you must see that it is because of this complete lack of criticism that the military has become so blind to the developments around the world, which resulted them losing all their credibility and prestige in they had in Turkey.
The media organizations that support you do not publish a single criticism about you. Will we build “new Turkey” on this culture of “permanent praise” and “avoiding criticism”? Mr. Prime Minister, why did Mehmet Altan and the other journalists before him lose their jobs?
Recently, Hüseyin Çelik, vice chairman of AKP, proposed to abolish the Law on Protecting Atatürk. Yes, we definetly must do it, but you should stop trying to create a de facto Law on the Protection of Tayyip Erdoğan by frequently launching lawsuits.
This is what you must do, in order to avoid drowning in a small river after crossing oceans.
