{"id":17722,"date":"2025-05-15T07:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T06:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=17722"},"modified":"2025-05-15T07:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T06:53:11","slug":"turkey-journalism-and-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/turkey-journalism-and-erdogan\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey, Journalism and Erdo\u011fan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a Q and A between Luke Sheehan and <\/b>Deniz G\u00fcng\u00f6r<\/span>.<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Can you summarize the political crisis in Turkey?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

First, I must say that in Turkey, a person must have a university diploma to be eligible to run for president. After the main opposition CHP\u2019s Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu announced his presidential candidacy, judicial operations were launched. First, \u0130mamo\u011flu’s diploma was annulled, then he was detained on March 19 and subsequently arrested. Following this, a series of protest demonstrations were organized in Sara\u00e7hane, where the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality building is located.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What is happening in Istanbul? What is the atmosphere like now?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The protests ended due to the interjection of the Ramadan holiday. However, it is safe to say that all these developments have awakened the social opposition. Turkey had not witnessed such large-scale, nearly nationwide protests since the 2013 Gezi Park resistance<\/a><\/span>. Even though the protests have ended, the smallest decision from the government drives the opposition back to the streets.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recount the key moments of the last few months in your own experience?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the most critical moments of the last few months was the police violence during the Sara\u00e7hane protests on March 23<\/a><\/span>. After a rally organized by the CHP in Sara\u00e7hane, the police attacked demonstrators and journalists near the Bozdo\u011fan Aqueduct with pepper spray, plastic bullets, and batons. (The reason the protesters tried to push through the police stationed at the Bozdo\u011fan Aqueduct was that they wanted to march to Taksim Square. The government has been banning all protests at Taksim Square since the Gezi Park resistance due to fear of its symbolic significance.) Many people were injured, including me. A police officer sprayed pepper gas directly into my face and kicked me in the stomach. Since that day, 301 university students and young people have been arrested and sent to prison. Most of them have now been released, but some are still imprisoned despite serious health issues. Calls for their release continue on social media.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How would you recount \u0130mamo\u011flu\u2019s path in politics? How did he come to represent a threat to Erdo\u011fan?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Before becoming the mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, \u0130mamo\u011flu was the mayor of the Beylikd\u00fcz\u00fc district in Istanbul. He was hardly known before becoming the metropolitan mayor. Until the 2019 elections, Istanbul was governed by Erdo\u011fan\u2019s party, the AKP. Erdo\u011fan once said, \u201cWhoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.\u201d For this reason, Istanbul holds great significance for them. When \u0130mamo\u011flu narrowly defeated the AKP\u2019s candidate Binali Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m in 2019, he first caught Erdo\u011fan\u2019s attention. The election was annulled, and \u0130mamo\u011flu was subjected to many provocations. However, in the re-run election in June 2019, \u0130mamo\u011flu was elected mayor by a landslide. After CHP took over Istanbul, corruption under the AKP administration was exposed. Religious cults embedded within the municipality were removed, and a policy of social municipalism was adopted. Projects like municipal daycare centers and public canteens (designed to support the people suffering under the economic crisis) were developed. Despite all the AKP propaganda, \u0130mamo\u011flu was re-elected in the 2024 local elections.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Since 2019, a large portion of society has expressed the desire to see \u0130mamo\u011flu as president. This made him a target for Erdo\u011fan. The AKP regime is terrified of losing power, especially since people still demand answers about the $128 billion that went missing from the Central Bank. If the AKP loses power, they know it won\u2019t end well for them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Compared to previous flare ups and crises [Gezi Park protests 2013], what is different about these events? Apart from factual differences, how does it feel different?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The Gezi Park resistance began as a movement to protect Gezi Park, and the police violence and deaths deepened it. But Sara\u00e7hane is a direct response to political maneuvers, increasing repression, arrests, and is directly against Erdo\u011fan. It still is. The protests found expression in universities through academic boycotts, and people from all walks of life took to the streets. The Sara\u00e7hane protests were a stand against Erdo\u011fan and his Islamist, authoritarian policies.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How is journalism functioning in this environment?<\/b><\/p>\n

The police try to prevent journalists from recording as much as possible. Their goal is to keep the torture they inflict from being documented. Often, journalists are detained together with protesters, surrounded by police.<\/em><\/p>\n

Your colleagues <\/b>were detained in February<\/b><\/a><\/span>, can you describe what happened? Was that business as usual for journalists in Turkey?<\/b><\/p>\n

Every month in Turkey, journalists are detained or prosecuted for the news they report or for their social media posts. This has become one of the regime\u2019s mechanisms of repression and has sadly become normalized. It\u2019s now rare to find a journalist who doesn\u2019t have at least one lawsuit filed against them. In February, detentions were carried out after BirG\u00fcn reported on a visit by Sabah newspaper to Istanbul\u2019s Chief Public Prosecutor, Ak\u0131n G\u00fcrlek, in his office. Sabah had also reported on the same visit.<\/em><\/p>\n

U\u011fur Ko\u00e7, Berkant G\u00fcltekin, and Ya\u015far G\u00f6kdemir were taken to Istanbul Police Headquarters in Vatan in the evening to give statements and were initially denied access to their lawyers. None of the three were summoned; they were directly taken from their homes. After their statements at the police station were completed around noon, they were referred to the Istanbul Courthouse in \u00c7a\u011flayan. Berkant G\u00fcltekin was released after giving his statement to the prosecutor. U\u011fur Ko\u00e7 and Ya\u015far G\u00f6kdemir were also released by the court with judicial control measures. All they did was report a visit already published by Sabah.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How is the violence being applied in the response to protest? Is it different to the past?<\/b><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, tactics like reverse handcuffing and pepper spray have become normalized forms of police brutality in Turkish protests.<\/em><\/p>\n

Can you single out a story of an ordinary family and how they have been affected?<\/b><\/p>\n

On April 8, university student Esila Ay\u0131k was arrested in Istanbul\u2019s Kad\u0131k\u00f6y district for holding a sign that read \u201cDictator Erdo\u011fan\u201d at the Kad\u0131k\u00f6y Dayan\u0131\u015fma Stage, accused of “insulting the president.” Ay\u0131k suffers from chronic heart and kidney disease. She has collapsed in prison and been hospitalized multiple times. Despite all these health problems, she has not been released. Her father repeatedly pleads, “Please release my daughter,\u201d but Esila remains imprisoned.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do the pro-Imamoglu people feel a connection to any citizens elsewhere locked in some kind of struggle?<\/b><\/p>\n

Honestly, I don\u2019t think so. People in Turkey see the struggle here as unique and particular to their own circumstances.<\/em><\/p>\n

You are 25. You have lived almost your whole life under the government of one leader. What does that feel like for your generation? Do you feel like Turkey can be called a democracy?<\/b><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I have lived my entire life under the Erdo\u011fan regime. From the moment he came to power, he embraced an Islamist political identity and had ties with the G\u00fclen movement. However, after the 2016 coup attempt, he pretended those ties never existed and started accusing dissidents of being linked to FET\u00d6 (Fetullahist Terrorist Organization). After the state of emergency was declared in 2016, repression increased, freedoms were restricted, and the economic crisis deepened. I believe this has especially impacted my generation and the ones after me. The generation before us wasn\u2019t afraid to take to the streets to demand their rights. But until the Sara\u00e7hane protests, people were silenced by fear \u2014 \u201cWhat if I get arrested, detained, what if I can\u2019t find a job in the future?\u201d Even something as simple as going to the cinema has become unaffordable for young people. Going out for a drink or to the theater has become a luxury. Most of us are unemployed university graduates. People no longer trust the election results, nor the judiciary. So no, as long as Erdo\u011fan\u2019s regime continues, it is not possible to talk about democracy in Turkey.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you could summarize the current situation with a metaphor, what would it be?<\/b><\/p>\n

The wall of fear the dictator built over 23 years had already cracked \u2014 now it\u2019s crumbling.<\/em><\/p>\n

Images all copyright \u00a9 BirG\u00fcn<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Deniz G\u00fcng\u00f6r<\/a><\/span> graduated in 2023 from the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Anadolu University in Eski\u015fehir Turkey. Since 2021, Deniz has been working at BirG\u00fcn Newspaper. She was awarded in the 65th Turkey Journalism Achievement Awards organized by the Turkish Journalists\u2019 Association (TGC) for her interview \u201cThe Hope We Carry Is Our Reason to Live\u201d, and again in the 66th TGC Awards for her news report titled \u201cUnauthorized Surgery at a Private Hospital: They Lied to the Judiciary\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a Q and A between Luke Sheehan and Deniz G\u00fcng\u00f6r. Can you summarize the political crisis in Turkey?\u00a0 First, I must say that in Turkey, a person must have a university diploma to be eligible to run for president. After the main opposition CHP\u2019s Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu announced his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[185,320,356,501,997,2112,2398,2876,3004,3749,4329,5049,5050,5718,5720,5724,8126,9585],"class_list":["post-17722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-global","tag-2013-gezi-park-resistance","tag-affairs","tag-akin-gurlek","tag-and","tag-birgun","tag-current","tag-deniz-gungor","tag-ekrem-imamoglu","tag-erdogan","tag-global","tag-imamoglu","tag-journalism","tag-journalism-and-erdogan","tag-luke-sheehan-cassandra-voices","tag-luke-sheehan-journalist","tag-luke-sheehan-writer","tag-sarachane-protests","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}