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Prominent Turkish Media Figure Resigns Citing Legal Battle With Erdogan
Last week, Turkey’s NATO-backed, Washington-approved autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan took another step towards ensuring that the concept of a free press doesn’t exist in Turkey when Can Dundar, editor in chief of Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gul, the newspaper’s capital correspondent were arrested on charges of spying and aiding a terrorist organization.

When you hear “aiding a terrorist organization”, you might think the men had, say, provided weapons to extremists or perhaps assisted in the smuggling of illegal oil from which the most prominent terrorist organization on the planet derives up to a billion dollar per year in revenue.
But no, that’s what the Turkish government does. As for the reporters, their crime was exposing the fact that Ankara was sending weapons to militants in Syria via trucks manned by Turkish intelligence agents. For those who missed it, here's the video proof:
Of course that was hardly the first time Erdogan has cracked down on the press. Back in September, in a move dubbed "unsubstantiated, outrageous and bizarre" by Amnesty International, Turkey arrested three Vice News journalists (two British citizens and an Iraqi) for allegedly "engaging in terror activity" on behalf of ISIS. That was just the latest example of Ankara using the NATO-backed ISIS offensive as an excuse to eradicate pro-Kurdish sentiment. According to The New York Times (and according to common sense) the reporters' only real "crime" was "covering the conflict between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish state."
And there are countless other examples.
Well, in the latest press casualty brought to you by America's despotic ally in Ankara, Today's Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bulent Kenes, a journalist who has been at the helm of Turkey's best-selling English-language daily since it was launched in 2007, has resigned citing an ongoing legal battle with Erdogan. Here's the full post from TZ:
Kenes said on Thursday that he cannot perform his job as the editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman due to a series of criminal and civil lawsuits government officials have launched against him as part of the campaign of pressure on the independent media in Turkey. He has already been convicted in one defamation case and is facing many others that observers have said are nothing but intimidation and persecution of independent and critical journalists in Turkey.
He also said he wanted to spend more time with his family and pay more attention to his health.
“As the founding editor-in-chief of the Today's Zaman, I have sincerely tried to fulfill my job to the best of my ability, maintained the paper's integrity and tried to resist all kinds of pressure from the government as much as I could,” Kenes said. He wished success for his colleagues at the daily, which he said has been a leading brand name in telling Turkey's story abroad, and thanked the readers of the daily for their valuable support for him over the years.
Kene? was arrested by the ?stanbul 7th Criminal Court of Peace on Oct. 10 and remained behind bars until his release pending trial was ordered on Oct. 14. The charges against the journalist concern 14 tweets that allegedly insult President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has already been convicted of insulting the president in a Twitter post and was handed a suspended prison sentence of 21 months earlier this year. However, Kenes did not even mention the president's name in his tweet and this sentence has attracted worldwide condemnation.
Kenes is facing the prospect of up to eight years and two months in prison on charges of “insulting” Erdogan in a series of tweets and statements that he has said were simply the expression of a critical opinion. He has also been hit by dozens of other pending cases launched against him by Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and other government officials.
So the takeaway from this travesty (well, other than to reiterate that the US should not be supporting this despot) is that you don't "insult Erodgan" on Twitter. Especially if you happen to live in Turkey. Although amusingly, you might be able to get away with comparing the President to Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) because as it turns out, Turkish judges aren't Tolkein fans and on that note, we close with the following from The Guardian:
The trial of a Turkish man accused of insulting the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, by comparing him to Gollum has been adjourned so that a group of experts can study JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings character, Turkish media has reported.
Bilgin Ciftci was fired from his job at Turkey’s public health service in October after sharing images comparing Erdo?an’s facial expressions to those of Gollum.
According to a report in the daily newspaper Today’s Zaman, a court in Ayd?n has adjourned Ciftci’s trial as the chief judge had not seen the Lord of the Rings films. The court-appointed experts have reportedly been asked to determine whether the comparison is indeed an insult.
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Another one bites the Dust.
See...Saddam Hussein’s problem was that he didn’t have NATO backing.
I’m just fucking with you Erdogan.
You’re next
Comparing Erdogan to Gollum is a huge insult to Gollum. Tolkien must be the one to sue.
Good for him. Too bad our US Obozo sycophant media do not share such a conscience. They gladly sell their souls for ratings and a smile from The One.
that part of the story is amazing. so amazing. it's almost like satire at this point, like a fake news story you'd see in a Grand Theft Auto game
Erdogan looks like Gollum? Fuck that. Van Rumpy all the way. Smeagol's love child ftw.
yup, and these shit-heads are a member of NATO and a "moderate" islamic country.
It has its same share of moderates and secularists as in America. What percentage of Americans are christian fundies? Its the same iwoth the muslim fundies Turkey. When uou look closely, turkey and ametika resemble each other on this score, just different religions
you could not be more wrong if you tried. the vast majority of americans are either agnostic, or any flavor of any religion but not Christian "fundies", whereas a majority of the turks are a reflection of their leadership...even the Christian Fundementalist in American cannot be compared to the Turks who supply and support ISIS, commit ethnic cleansing of the kurds, kill journalists while receiving the maximum goverment protection. to compare American and Americans to the turks is truly unbelievable, sad, and inaccurate.
true, we have a lot of problems we need to focus on; but you dont walk in this country scared becasue the Christian "fundies" are going to ethnically cleans your neighberhood--- with police protection.
Some People in US are cleansing Planned Parenthood..
i think they're all insane. Only crazies literally interpret religious texts -unless you're a theoretical physicist or something
So, was he calling him thee Gollum or a gollum. There is a difference... just sayin.
"In Jewish folklore, an artificially created human supernaturally endowed with life."
Obama the court jester and Otto erDOGAN are Whistling in the Wind; Blowing in the Wind; Candles in the Wind; It's an ill wind that blows neither any good!
Pure Comic Tragedy, Shakespeare would Pen this Script.
The WORLD is Watching and Anything other than the Elimination of DAESH will be OUR RED LINE, Mr NeoCon.
Just waiting for US bases to be attacked in Turkey.
False Flag or for realz. No matter
Then it's game on.
Strategery bitchez!
"more time with his family and pay more attention to his health."
I'm probably just imagining there's been a lot of resignations lately. But I could bet you he's bugging out.
"Goodbye Erdogan."
I just thought I would get that in, in case something happened suddenly and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.
He will either be imprisoned or dead
Cracking down on "inconvenient truths." Imagine that.
I'm pretty sure Turkey was heavily involved in the rendition tortures on behalf of that large State can't think if its name right now, maybe some yanky cunt can help me there. So its president can pretty much do what ever the fuck he wants. Is that too hard to grasp!
My friend says that Erdogan is a shithead cunt. Maybe he doesn't realise that if he calls him an arselicking piece of shit that he is committing a crime. I, on the other hand, would never insult him with names like dogshit prick or fuckwit arsehole no he is the President of Turkey and deserves our respect.
I agree, as the democratically elected president of turkey (None of thos words deserve a Capital letter in this sentence) he deserves all the respect due to him...the spineless, shrivel-dicked, pigshit fucking, piss-stained hemeroid of humanity.
Erdogan: "Filthy reporters! We hates them!"
When I visited Istanbul last summer for a wedding my gf and I would be in a taksi riding across town and pull behind mercedes sprinter vans on several occasions and in the bottom corner of the right rear window would be a tiny ISIS flag. I saw this at least 6-7 times, and didn't let her know I saw it until we came back just to keep her from worrying needlessly, but that let me know they were all over the place.
9 weeks huh?
http://www.google.com/search?q=isis+symbols+on+taxis+in+istanbul&btnG=Se...
See...they're coming...
He said riding in a taksi he saw the symbol on sprinter vans. I don't think uber uses vans.
But it could've just been ISIS sympathizers.
My bad. Bad read on my part.
The takeaway I get is... regardless of either synthetic or organic (which is probably in fact in this case a hybrid) the beast has been unleashed on Erdogan locally, because unlike Saddam it could be.
The results will be the same. Arson from above or in this case, below.
They're going to burn the joints down on all the remaining Seculars (Hello Turkey!). The more the gangsters play with and try and make money with the crazies...the faster they will burn.
Real arsonists know their media.
(And to anyone out there claiming to see these artifacts. Take a fucking picture and post a link. You have access to a proprietary surveillance state in your phone FFS. Use it.)
When I visited Istanbul in the summer, I saw Erdogan on his knees, giving blow jobs to ISIS soldiers, there was a big line of them from Istanbul all the way to Damascus, it was a pure Recep Tayip Bakake party.
I knew then I should of taken a photo.
Hindsight, huh?!?
That journalist is not a prominent one, never was. He is just a pen soldier of Erdogan's archrival Fethullah Gülen. Erdogan and Gülen were partners till they toppled the Turkish top brass from the throne. Now they hate each other.
The Turks need to get out of Constantinople and allow that city to return to civilization.
Had he been a prominent Russian media fifth columnist who told lies about Putin, he would have fallen on his feet into a cushy MSM job in the West.
Because he reported news regarding an Islamist tyrant and ally of Riyadh, his career in journalism is over.
No comparison.....Doggie parts his hair on the left while Gollum's part is on the right!
Power it's self has for a long time produced nothing but the signs of its resemblance.
And at the same time another figure of power comes into play due to the collective demand for signs of power -- a holy union is reconstructed around its disappearance.The whole world adheres to this more or less in terror of the collapse of the political.
And in the end the game of power becomes nothing but the critical obsession with power -- obsession with its death, and obsession with its survival which increases as it disappears.