"Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is."
At least he is right about that. His, and by extension Turkey's, impotence will soon be there for all to see. It reminds me of "Consequences will never be the same"
"We won't allow the people to be devoured by YouTube, Facebook or others"
The people are willingly placing their heads in the mouth of these lions. It is revealing how much world leaders are freaked by the concept of really free communications. Observers of political life already know that while there may be an illusion of press freedom, the collusion between media barons and the powerful (entered into willingly or through the pressure "no interview / early access for you") has a chilling effect.
Turkey is kind of special, though. Atatürk managed to glue together the remainder of the Ottoman Empire by streamlining culture and society (by force). You have the culturally suppresed Kurds who were even prohibited from speaking their language for decades, then you have the backlash against the decades-long marginalization of religion (Islam), you have the Alevite religious minority, and then the ardent defenders of Atatürks vision.
It is hard to see how somebody could hope to "keep the lid" on all that. There will be more unrest in Turkey.
Turkey is a neighboring country. Erdogan has been busy dismantling what Kemal Ataturk built (don't go into how he built it), for more than a decade under the banner of religious freedom. But he is getting more and more resistance because seems a lot of young Turks read religious freedom as "right to be as secular as one wishes" and his government has a lot of corruption going on and the West really managed to sell the whole freedom of speech ideal across the world.
So he, Putin, and all known and unknown cronies will wrestle with a lot of insubordination for years to come. The millennial all around the world see government differently. Unlike the elites. So they just cannot grasp why stuff like Gezi happens.
Well, besides the 140 characters, in a lot of cases it's also a foreign government controlled medium, with tons of paid "independent individuals" spurting propaganda against your country's interests to influence local policy in favor of this or that large interest group.
This is an allusion to the first phone call published between Erdogan and his son Bilal. Throughout the recording Bilal demonstrates a clear lack of intelligence, often misunderstanding stuff.
This is hypothesized to be a reaction to a series of audio recordings that were anonymously released over time. These were ridiculously damning, clearly someone is tapping phones without anyone else's knowledge.
The official reason for the shutdown is that there were sexual photos of some poor citizen released on twitter against her will, and she complained but twitter refused to take them down. So they decided to shut down the entire website. Yeah, right.
Of course this is ominous that at the end of this month, the local elections will take place. No coincidence.
It's surreal how all this is going down. It's like watching a conspiracy theory movie. Blatant shills everywhere, media manipulation abounds, blatant lies heard on TV from the horse's mouth. We were all skeptical already, it's inevitable when you live in a third world country for years, but wow. When you hear the insiders actually talking to each other, it's a whole new level.
more news on this specific event: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-blocks-twitter-after...http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/03/turkey-erdogan-...
edit: Erdogan stated a few days ago that he didn't care what the world thought, and he would eradicate twitter. He said "how dare they listen to our encrypted phone conversations". It's expected that on the 25th, something huge is going to be released that might sway the elections bigtime. Whoever is posting these are doing it slowly and deliberately, a few days at a time, building up anticipation. So people think that twitter getting shut down is probably related to this.
I just want to add few things:
Most of the leaking tapes are from the corruption investigation that was effectively blocked by the PM. His son was to be detained too but he shuffled or dismissed any prosecutor or police force that would dare to. Later he restructured the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors and did everything to stop the investigation and arrests.
The son of the Interior minister was arrested too but the Interior minister himself remained in power till he helped out Erdogan to restructure judiciary and law enforcement forces.
The legal files were leaked too. Turns out the Interior Minister knew about the ongoing investigation,so he created a team in the police to surveillance the other policemen who were after his son.
It's surreal.
Clearly, Turkey is not really a democracy anymore. As an outside observer, the Turkish "deep state" was a major problem, but having a nationalist network replaced by a conservative mafia is even worse. But if I understand correctly, this only comes out as a result of a power struggle between Erdogan and his former ally, the preacher Fethullah Gülen. If that's really the case, then it shows Turkish institutions have been infiltrated by two distinct Islamist networks, as well as the remains of the deep state network.
Isn't there any secular, non-nationalist political movement in Turkey?
>The official reason for the shutdown is that there were sexual photos of some poor citizen released on twitter against her will, and she complained but twitter refused to take them down. So they decided to shut down the entire website. Yeah, right.
Well, this part makes sense. If some international company doesn't comply with local laws and customs, what's left to do? It's not like Twitter, a private company, is above all law, and is some kind of essential need for humanity.
You may call it a third world country, but it is a member of NATO. Even if the politicians become fundamental islamists, the US and Europe is bound by treaty to defend their borders.
Of one the last ripples caused by a collapsing tyrant. A shameful, a very shameful act but unfortunately just another link on a long chain of despotic measures.
There are regional elections in Turkey at the end of March. The governing party is expected to receive a major blow. Latest scandals have certainly not helped their cause.
I wish changing government were as easy as changing DNS settings.
I wonder if the US will apply it's moral here this time? Seriously, if Venezuela or some other country like that did something like this the US gov would be up against the 'regime' in no time. Let's see.
Obama is a big time supporter of Erdogan. During gezipark protests, he even silenced his embassador after his pro-democratic statements -- they deleted the public tweets, etc.
US government is one of the few reasons that Erdogan's regime is still illegitimate, because the opposition against them is minimal in the Western media.
Turkey blocks use of Twitter after prime minister attacks social media site. Why do journalists always use these kinds of titles? They seem to be so terribly afraid of pronouns that they make titles that make no sense. Which social media site was the prime minister attacking, and why is twitter blocked because of it?
In other news, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, was recorded talking with his lawyer on burner phones bought under a fake name, discussing about a mole they have who keeps them illegally informed of the investigations currently going on (such as having had Gaddafi fund his political campaign). The tape was leaked to the press. In spite of this, he is still the favourite would-be candidate for the presidential elections of the French conservative party.
See also Berlusconi. The wonderful thing about the combination of democracy and transparency is that the majority of the population gets exactly the leaders they deserve.
[+] [-] SixSigma|12 years ago|reply
At least he is right about that. His, and by extension Turkey's, impotence will soon be there for all to see. It reminds me of "Consequences will never be the same"
"We won't allow the people to be devoured by YouTube, Facebook or others"
The people are willingly placing their heads in the mouth of these lions. It is revealing how much world leaders are freaked by the concept of really free communications. Observers of political life already know that while there may be an illusion of press freedom, the collusion between media barons and the powerful (entered into willingly or through the pressure "no interview / early access for you") has a chilling effect.
[+] [-] sentenza|12 years ago|reply
It is hard to see how somebody could hope to "keep the lid" on all that. There will be more unrest in Turkey.
[+] [-] JanneVee|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] venomsnake|12 years ago|reply
So he, Putin, and all known and unknown cronies will wrestle with a lot of insubordination for years to come. The millennial all around the world see government differently. Unlike the elites. So they just cannot grasp why stuff like Gezi happens.
[+] [-] coldtea|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mustafabei|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mxfh|12 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/irisherself/status/446946548807524352
Yet "some people" still get it wrong: https://twitter.com/odtuogrencileri/status/44681745427084902...
[+] [-] seqizz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ayberkt|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lazugod|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrtksn|12 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htUIHJuDNzk&feature=youtu.be
[+] [-] mrtksn|12 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7439602
------------
Background info:
This is hypothesized to be a reaction to a series of audio recordings that were anonymously released over time. These were ridiculously damning, clearly someone is tapping phones without anyone else's knowledge.
Previously:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/turkish-pm-corr... http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/iw/contents/articles/origina... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_corruption_scandal_in_Turk...
Some highlights from the "alleged" recordings so far:
- PM calling to get news about an opposing party removed from a TV channel multiple times
- Modifying political poll results to manipulate public opinion
- Getting people of opposing opinions fired
- Buying a large paper shredder to destroy documents
- PM calling son to ask how much money there is at home, son replies saying about 1 trillion, then switches to 3-5 kurush (cents in turkish).
- PM calling son to say "they're raiding the houses, zero out the money". Son says there's only 30 million euros left.
- Call to order the judges to be fixed, and says that a specific person is to be imprisoned.
- Trying to manipulate who goes on the supreme court.
- Says "ignore the prosecutor who's running the corruption investigations". Orders documents ripped up.
(source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/25981622.asp)
The official reason for the shutdown is that there were sexual photos of some poor citizen released on twitter against her will, and she complained but twitter refused to take them down. So they decided to shut down the entire website. Yeah, right. Of course this is ominous that at the end of this month, the local elections will take place. No coincidence. It's surreal how all this is going down. It's like watching a conspiracy theory movie. Blatant shills everywhere, media manipulation abounds, blatant lies heard on TV from the horse's mouth. We were all skeptical already, it's inevitable when you live in a third world country for years, but wow. When you hear the insiders actually talking to each other, it's a whole new level. more news on this specific event: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-blocks-twitter-after... http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/03/turkey-erdogan-...
Related old post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7189577
edit: Erdogan stated a few days ago that he didn't care what the world thought, and he would eradicate twitter. He said "how dare they listen to our encrypted phone conversations". It's expected that on the 25th, something huge is going to be released that might sway the elections bigtime. Whoever is posting these are doing it slowly and deliberately, a few days at a time, building up anticipation. So people think that twitter getting shut down is probably related to this.
edit2: All recordings were put on youtube by someone: https://www.youtube.com/user/haramzadeler333
a reply:
------
I just want to add few things: Most of the leaking tapes are from the corruption investigation that was effectively blocked by the PM. His son was to be detained too but he shuffled or dismissed any prosecutor or police force that would dare to. Later he restructured the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors and did everything to stop the investigation and arrests. The son of the Interior minister was arrested too but the Interior minister himself remained in power till he helped out Erdogan to restructure judiciary and law enforcement forces. The legal files were leaked too. Turns out the Interior Minister knew about the ongoing investigation,so he created a team in the police to surveillance the other policemen who were after his son. It's surreal.
[+] [-] mercurial|12 years ago|reply
Isn't there any secular, non-nationalist political movement in Turkey?
[+] [-] nightcracker|12 years ago|reply
The irony.
[+] [-] cheesedawg|12 years ago|reply
"- PM calling son to ask how much money there is at home, son replies saying about 1 trillion, then switches to 3-5 kurush (cents in turkish)."
[+] [-] coldtea|12 years ago|reply
Well, this part makes sense. If some international company doesn't comply with local laws and customs, what's left to do? It's not like Twitter, a private company, is above all law, and is some kind of essential need for humanity.
[+] [-] amalag|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yawz|12 years ago|reply
There are regional elections in Turkey at the end of March. The governing party is expected to receive a major blow. Latest scandals have certainly not helped their cause.
I wish changing government were as easy as changing DNS settings.
[+] [-] buzaga41|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theverse|12 years ago|reply
US government is one of the few reasons that Erdogan's regime is still illegitimate, because the opposition against them is minimal in the Western media.
[+] [-] cLeEOGPw|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ctekin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] higherpurpose|12 years ago|reply
http://twister.net.co/
[+] [-] n0rm|12 years ago|reply
Coming to a screen near you.
[+] [-] mrtksn|12 years ago|reply
Since a while the whistleblowers are talking about it, giving teasers and so on.
[+] [-] xyproto|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jules|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _b8r0|12 years ago|reply
[1] - http://torproject.org/
[2] - http://lahana.dreamcats.org/
[+] [-] wil421|12 years ago|reply
Does anyone know of websites that dedicate themselves to find corruption in US politicians?
[+] [-] tehwalrus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] batuhanicoz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dexter2016|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mendicantB|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mercurial|12 years ago|reply
See also Berlusconi. The wonderful thing about the combination of democracy and transparency is that the majority of the population gets exactly the leaders they deserve.
[+] [-] yawz|12 years ago|reply
Hard to believe isn't it? He's expected to get 20 to 30% of the votes during next week's regional elections.
[+] [-] pinkskip|12 years ago|reply