Turkey’s conversion into an all out despotic, banana republic is almost complete.
Recall that in November, violence erupted in the troubled nation in which president Erdogan is now actively seeking dictatorial powers after a prominent lawyer and foe of Erdogan, was assassinated on live TV. This occured just days before Erdogan arrests journalists who exposed Erdogan’s weapons smuggling to extremist Syrian rebels, among whom was Cumhuriyet editor in chief Can Dundar.
Moments ago Turkey’s NTV reported that a gunman fired three shots at the famous Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dundar who was waiting outside an Istanbul court where he’s being tried for espionage, in a high profile trial being pursued by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, NTV reports. According to the report the bullet misses Dundar and hits an NTV reporter in the leg, NTV says.
Can Dundar arrives at the Justice Palace in Istanbul, Turkey May 6, 2016
Reuters adds that the assailant attempted to shoot Turkish journalist Can Dündar outside a courthouse in Istanbul just before the court was due to announce the verdict in Dündar’s trial on accusations of revealing state secrets.
According to the AP, the police have arrested a gunman after the attempted assasination. Journalist Erdem Gul, who is on trial along with Dundar, said the attacker shouted “traitor” as he fired.
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Earlier on Friday, Dündar said journalism was on trial as he gave his final defence in a case that has drawn international criticism of Turkey’s press freedom record.
Dündar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Erdem Gül, its Ankara bureau chief, could face life in jail on espionage charges and attempting to topple the government for publishing footage that purported to show Turkey’s state intelligence agency ferrying weapons into Syria in 2014. Their lawyers said the prosecutor did not seek the espionage charge in his closing statement, but nonetheless called for Dündar to be jailed for 25 years for procuring and revealing state secrets and for Gül to be jailed for 10 years for publishing them.
“We are now on trial for our story: for acquiring and publishing state secrets,” Dündar told Reuters during a court recess. “This confirms journalism is on trial, making our defence easier and a conviction harder.”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who joined the trial as a complainant, accused the men of undermining Turkey’s international reputation and vowed Dündar would “pay a heavy price”, raising opposition concerns the case was politicised.
It appears he also meant the ultimate price.
“This case isn’t based on law, it’s political,” said Mahmut Tanal, from the opposition Republican People’s party. “That’s evidenced by the president joining this case as a complainant … There is an attempt to pressure the court.”
Cumhuriyet’s revelations, published in May 2015, infuriated Erdogan, who said that Dündar would “pay a heavy price” and personally filed a criminal complaint against the journalists for what he has portrayed as part of an attempt to undermine Turkey’s global standing.
The story was based on a 2014 video purporting to show Turkey’s state intelligence agency helping to transport weapons to Syria. Erdogan has acknowledged that the lorries, which were stopped by Turkish paramilitary forces and police officers en rout to the Syrian border, belonged to the intelligence agency but said they were carrying aid to Turkmen rebels in Syria. Turkmen fighters are battling both the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and Isis.
Expect this unprecedented crackdown on the free press to continue: just two weeks ago Erdogan arrested a Dutch journalist for a critical tweet, which in turn followed Erodgan decition to designate journalists as potential “terrorists”:
“It is not only the person who pulls the trigger, but those who made that possible who should be defined as terrorists, regardless of their title,” Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan said on Monday, in an attempt to convince parliament to include journalists, politicians, academics, and activists under the country’s anti-extremism laws.
Meanwhile, this “close friend” of Europe who now has all the leverage he needs to call all the shots since he controls the flow of millions of potential refugees, made a mockery of the EU earlier today, when Erdogan told the European Union on Friday, Turkey would not make changes to its terrorism laws required under a deal to curb migration, and declared: “we’re going our way, you go yours”.
As Reuters reported, his fiery speech will be a blow to any hope in European capitals that it might be business as usual with Turkey after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who negotiated the migration deal with Europe and had largely delivered on Turkey’s commitments so far, announced he was standing down.
The EU asked member states on Wednesday to grant visa-free travel to Turks in return for Ankara stopping migrants reaching Europe, but said Turkey still had to change some laws first, including bringing its terrorism laws in line with EU standards.
“When Turkey is under attack from terrorist organizations and the powers that support them directly, or indirectly, the EU is telling us to change the law on terrorism,” Erdogan said in a speech at the opening of a local government office.
In short: Erdogan will do whatever it wants to do, and Europe has zero control over the wannabe dictator.
via http://ift.tt/1Weg68y Tyler Durden