A police officer fires teargas in Istanbul during the Gezi Park protests, June 2013. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Eight of Turkey’s most respected human rights defenders were arrested last week, along with two information technology trainers from Sweden and Germany. All ten of those arrested are still in police custody but have not been charged with any crime.
Western leaders have a choice: stand with the terrorists or stand with the Turkish people
• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is president of Turkey
Today marks the first anniversary of the 15 July coup attempt in Turkey. Exactly one year ago, millions of Turkish citizens set aside their political, cultural and ethnic differences to form a united front against the plotters who tried to suspend our country’s constitution, shot at innocent civilians and bombed the parliament. Together, the people of Turkey refused to allow an armed group to rob them of democracy, liberty and their way of life.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan exploited the crisis to lead a purge against all oppositional voices to rule by decree. It could have all been handled so differently
• Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is leader of Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s party
Today marks the first anniversary of a heinous attempted coup in Turkey. A group of soldiers, belonging to Fethullah Gülen’s network, led an attempt to overthrow Turkish democracy. The attempt foundered in the face of the resistance of our people and the overwhelming majority of the Turkish armed forces. There were 249 people who lost their lives in the events of 15 July. Elected representatives rushed to the parliament to defend our democracy. MPs from my party were at the forefront of this effort. I immediately condemned the coup attempt and instructed our members to defend the parliament. Government sources and media circulated my condemnation message all night so it was this unified stance that helped to secure the coup’s failure.
The Guardian view on post-coup Turkey: don’t rebuild on vengeance | Editorial
President Erdoğan is a strongman who is tightening his grip on power and using punishment as an occasion for a new constitutional settlement“We remain committed to justice,” wrote the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in this newspaper in an article marking the first anniversary of the 15 July coup attempt to remove the government of his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). However, the question is what sort of justice President Erdoğan wants his country to commit to? In a speech this weekend to thousands of supporters, he seemed to be advocating capital punishment as a form of judicial retribution – saying that if parliament voted for a bill bringing back the death penalty, he would approve cutting off traitors’ heads. Such a move would set Turkey back in terms of both foreign and domestic politics.
A year ago, on 15 July 2016, the Turkish people managed to thwart a bloody coup attempt. But instead of reflecting the people’s democratic aspirations in its response, the government has carried out an unprecedented crackdown on the pretext of
There is also some public debate among nationalists whether the posters’ approach to soldiers are too pejorative…
All posters here [“Legenf of 15 July”]
Vía Erkan’s Field Diary http://ift.tt/2uzzVzD
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