‘Erdogan wants to be Putin’: Anger on the streets of Istanbul as Turkish president cracks down on protests
Turkish journalists told The Independent they have never seen protests this big - nor such a tough government crackdown
Tens of thousands of protesters in Turkey have faced tear gas, batons and rubber bullets in the worst unrest the country has faced in a decade.
More than 1,100 people have been taken into custody over seven straight days of demonstrations against president Recep Rayyip Erdogan, sparked by the arrest of the country’s main opposition leader, the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu.
At least eight of those were journalists and now their colleagues in the Turkish press have told The Independent they have never seen a government crackdown like it.
Can Dundar, a Turkish journalist who has been living in exile in Europe for eight years after being charged with treason in 2015, said the president’s desire to hold onto power was the root of the anger.
“He wanted to be another Putin, but the country is not ready to be another Russia,” Mr Dundar told The Independent. “So now the people are resisting, and Erdogan is pushing.”
Mr Dundar, who now runs the media outlet Ozguruz from Germany, said Mr Imamoglu has beaten President Erdogan’s party four times in local elections and was the president’s “most important rival”.
He pointed to opinion polls suggesting the incumbent would not win another presidential election, and claimed Erdogan was cracking down on free speech and democracy instead.
“It's a very critical point between autocracy and democracy,” Mr Dundar continued. “Either way is possible.
“For the first time since the Gezi protests in 2013 people are taking to the streets, nationwide, all over, so I'm really hopeful because people have broken through the wall of fear for the first time in years, and resisting now.”
Engin Bas, a television journalist for 30 years and an Istanbul local, said the majority of protestors gathering in the city each day have been peaceful. But he said every day they have been met with thousands of police officers resulting in violent clashes on the streets.
“I saw that they [police] use batons. I saw them use fists and kicks,” he explained. “I saw that they also targeted the young… with the rubber bullets,” he said.
The violence has not deterred the demonstrators, it would seem. Mr Bas said he spoke with a girl who was covered in bruises from rubber bullets, but who was still preparing to go out and protest again.
“This reflects the psychology of the youngsters and university students,” he added. “They're all like this right now.”
In a televised speech, on Monday Mr Erdogan called the protests "evil" and claimed that it had become a "movement of violence" while blaming the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
The ensuing crackdown is not just occurring on the streets, but online too. The Turkish government has issued court orders to social media site X to shut down the accounts of more than 700 journalists, media outlets and activists - a move X has said it is fighting in court.
And journalists in Turkey are deeply concerned about the recent arrests of their colleagues.
Erol Onderoglu, who started the Istanbul office for Reporters Without Borders in 1996, said press freedom is worse now than it was under military rule when he first came to Turkey.
Given the size of the demonstrations on the street, Mr Onderoglu said authorities were trying to use journalists as an example for protestors in a bid to quell the public.
“We are observing a very elaborate crackdown,” he told The Independent, listing the systematic arrests of journalists, widespread online censorship, and tight judicial controls of journalists which restrict their movement.
“The close control, close surveillance of content - and physically of journalists - have never been so measurable.”
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