The jailing of prominent journalist Sedef Kabas and threats against famous pop diva Sezen Aksu are stirring controversy in Erdogan's Turkey. It's part of a trend that brings Islamists and government supporters together.
Journalist Sedef Kabas and pop star Sezen Aksu have both been targeted by the government and Islamists
"There is a very famous proverb that says: A crowned head becomes wiser. But we see that is not true. When the ox enters the palace, he does not become a king; rather, the palace becomes a barn," Kabas said on Tele 1, an opposition television channel. She later tweeted the saying, as well.
The 52-year-old journalist was then targeted by government officials and pro-government groups. Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said Kabas will "get what she deserves for her unlawful words."
"The honor of the presidency's office is the honor of our country. I strongly condemn the vulgar insults made against our president and his office," Turkey's Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun tweeted.
On Saturday, security forces detained Kabas in a midnight raid for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code for "insulting the president" carries a prison sentence of one to four years.
Prosecution for 'insulting the president'
In Turkey, thousands of people have been convicted for "insulting the president" since Erdogan was elected to the office in 2014.
According to Turkish justice ministry statistics, 160,169 investigations have been launched over "insulting the president," with 35,507 cases filed over the last eight years.
The law prosecutes not only journalists, artists and academics, but also ordinary citizens. According to human rights defenders, the article is a serious attack on the freedom of expression.
"Such a sanction, by its very nature, inevitably had a chilling effect on the willingness of the person concerned to express his or her views on matters of public interest," the court stated in an October 2021 ruling.
Pop star also targeted
Also last week, Turkish pop singer Sezen Aksu faced criticism from pro-government Islamist groups after sharing a five-year-old song called "How Wonderful to be Alive" on her Youtube channel for New Year's Eve.
Aksu was accused of blasphemy for singing, "We are heading straight to a disaster/Say hi to Adam and Eve, those ignorant ones" in her song. President Erdogan subsequently threatened the legendary singer and songwriter.
"No one can defame our Prophet Adam. It is our duty to rip those tongues out. No one can say those words to our mother Eve," Erdogan said at last week's Friday prayer without mentioning Aksu's name.
Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, which has been instrumentalized in political affairs during Erdogan era, also made a statement about Aksu's song: "One should be extremely careful and sensitive in every sentence when talking about distinguished holy figures of Islam," Diyanet stated.
Meanwhile, a group of lawyers in Turkish capital Ankara filed a criminal complaint against Sezen Aksu for "insulting religious values."
'A preview of future polarizing rhetoric'
Emre Erdogan is professor of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University
The 68-year-old singer defied threats by sharing a new poem/song "Hunter," which was translated into 35 languages by social media users in one night. In it, she said: "You cannot crush my tongue."
"I have been writing for 47 years, and I'll continue to write," she added in a Facebook post. Like journalist Sedef Kabas, the Turkish pop queen also received massive support from the opposition, including from politicians.
"Artists will speak out, they cannot be silenced," tweeted Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu from Turkey's main opposition party CHP.
For Emre Erdogan, a professor of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University, as a popular singer for many generations, Sezen Aksu doesn't seem to be a good target for an attack to consolidate AK Party’s conservative voter base.
"Still, it squeezes newly emerging, minor political actors who target the AK Party voter base," he told DW.
"Framing the debate as an attack on Islamic values pushes such actors to advocate for freedom of expression," he pointed out. The president's move prevents such actors from taking a bridge role, he explained.
"This scenario may be perceived as a preview of future polarizing rhetoric until the next elections, in which every single vote will be invaluable," he said.
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As prices soar in Turkey, poverty and discontent deepen
Social media: Battleground for public controversies
Erdogan's divisive language gained momentum after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, when thousands protested the government's authoritarian policies.
Erdogan began promoting nationalist and Islamist discourse to strengthen his policy of polarization after his party's alliance with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Detention of journalist Sedef Kabas and threats against musician Sezen Aksu reflect such dimensions of political polarization.
In Turkey, where society is highly polarized, social media functions as a political battleground. For example, after pro-government groups started tweeting #SezenAksuKnowYourPlace and #SedefKabasKnowYourPlace, supporters shot back with #SezenAksuIsNotAlone and #SedefKabasIsNotAlone hashtags.
As Turkish citizens face severe economic problems due to high inflation, some opposition spheres see the recent developments as a strategic move on the part of the government to divert public attention.
On the other side is the argument that to sustain stability amidst chaos, Erdogan is playing his "religion card" for a more authoritarian Islamist regime in a time of economic crisis.
Anthropologist and journalist Ayse Cavdar
Anthropologist and journalist Ayse Cavdar, however, diverges from this thesis.
"This is not a move to divert the political agenda or change public discussion," she told DW.
"This is President Erdogan saying to his supporters, 'I take prosperity from you, but in return I give you something greater: Your religious sensitivities are defended by the highest political authority.'"
"This is a bargain where the opposition unfortunately remains silent," she concluded.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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