Turkey: The Powerful And The Paranoid

http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/turkey-the-powerful-and-the-paranoid/152/

Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

By Jess Hill

POLITICS   |   March 27, 2012

Respond to Feature

Turkey: The Powerful And The Paranoid

Turkey is powerful, prosperous and stable. So why is it locking up so many of its intellectuals?

“ We know that terrorist cells might include a university chair, an association or a NGO.”

Turkey arrests journalists in alleged terror plot

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/20/world/meast/turkey-journalists-arrested/index.html

By Ivan Watson and Yesim Comert, CNN

December 20, 2011 — Updated 2317 GMT (0717 HKT)

Journalists and human rights activists gather in Istanbul on Tuesday to protest the detention of dozens of journalists.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Police raids target journalists; dozens of people detained
• “We consider this a witch hunt and a threat to anyone who is in opposition,” says newspaper executive
• Observer says this is an ongoing clampdown “against people who are not terrorists”
• Journalists say press freedom is under attack in Turkey

Istanbul (CNN) — Turkish police detained dozens of people in a wave of raids targeting suspected members of the “press and propaganda wing” of a banned Kurdish separatist group accused of committing acts of terrorism, the semi-official Anatolian Agency reported Tuesday.

Home thoughts from abroad

Even as Turkey preaches human rights to neighbours, its record at home is patchy

WITH her intense gaze, washed-out jeans and talk of freedom, Dilsat Aktas is a typical left-wing activist. In May the 29-year-old climbed onto an armoured police-carrier in Ankara to protest against the death of another activist, who had suffered a stroke after being sprayed with pepper gas in the Black Sea province of Hopa. Ms Aktas now hobbles around on crutches: the police clubbed her so hard as she tried to escape that they broke her left hip. “The doctor says it will take three years to fix,” she says, dragging on a cigarette.