Erdogan to pursue repressive methods in Turkey: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Boris Malagurski, a political analyst and documentary maker in Belgrade, about a court in Turkey sentencing two opposition journalists to a total of about 11 years in jail on charges of “leaking state secrets.”

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: You have a few stories here, you have the case against journalism, freedom of speech, and you have of course the accusation that is being leveled against these two journalists in essence but above that is the fact that you have a country that is supporting terrorists with these arms. Based on what we are seeing, it seems like this is credible, the case that these two journalists have put forward. What is your reading into what has happened in this case regarding these journalists in Turkey?  

Malagurski: Well I think it is very paradoxical that these two journalists have been convicted by a Turkish court for “espionage, revealing state secrets and aiding terrorists” when all they have done has revealed who is actually aiding terrorists and that is the Turkish government.

Of course aiding terrorists by revealing that someone else is aiding terrorists is not really a crime. It just boggles the mind that the Turkish government would see it this way and the facts that they put forward in the stories that they revealed in their reporting really do point towards the fact that Turkey is not only dealing with oil as some other journalists have revealed in the past but it is also sending arms to terrorists in Syria.

And this is just another crackdown of the Turkish government against freedom of the press in Turkey and these two convictions follow the pattern that Turkey has pursued in the past when it comes to persecuting journalists and I of course understand that the two journalists are condemning Turkey, I think every journalist in the world should condemn this Turkish court and condemn the Turkish government for cracking down on press freedom in such a brutal way, sentencing two journalists to over five years in jail just because they wrote a story about how their government is not doing something morally right and something essentially illegal by sending arms to terrorists.

Press TV: And quickly if you can, President Erdogan is known at this point almost all over the world how he wants to tighten his grip on power but the way that he is going about is pretty much reducing even on a business side any investor confidence in the country, you know press freedom to be reduced, you have a crackdown on anybody who pretty much speaks against them has reduced this confidence. Why does he continue in the form and manner that he has been, knowing that this is the type of consequence that Turkey as a whole is going to suffer?

Malagurski: Well you are right. Erdogan has been doing this for a long time. He has been cracking down on journalists for insulting him, for various things that are quite normal in anywhere else, in any free country.

But apparently the reason why Erdogan is behaving this way, is continuing to behave this way, is because he has certain support in Western circles in the United States for continuing what he is doing. This is not only a crackdown against journalists; this is a crackdown against academics. For example they signed a petition against Turkish military intervention in the predominantly Kurdish areas of the country and he behaves the way he wants to, he behaves the way he wants to towards the European Union because their hands are pretty much tied because of the whole refugee crisis.

They offered him a visa-free travel and he said, ‘You go your own way, we will go ours’ and I think that the only reason why Erdogan is sort of allowed to do all these things is because he has American support for his policies. They need him in a way in this region and this is why he will probably continue to pursue these repressive methods in Turkey until I hope the Turkish people rise up against him and do something to end this horrible tyranny.

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