There are two distant tunes emerging from Turkey these days, and they are quite discordant. One hums the official line, which goes “all's fine and dandy in this land, apart from a handful of enemies, conspirators and other troublemakers who we're dealing with”. The other tune is more ominous, and it goes “the country's falling, falling, falling... into the clutches of dictatorship.” Realities on the ground certainly do not support the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government's rosy melody, and this can be explained by reflecting on three events. The first concerns an Azerbaijani journalist, a long-term resident of Turkey, who was deported last week for criticising Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan on his Twitter account. Mahir Zaynalov, 27, who is also married to a Turkish woman, works for the online edition of the English-language Today's Zaman, which is reportedly close to Sheikh Mohamed Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan's erstwhile ally and mentor who triggered the eruption of the corruption scandal that is now sweeping the country on 17 December. Today's Zaman editor-in-chief Bülent Keneş decried the deportation, saying it was “not merely an attack against our newspaper, but also an attempt to intimidate all foreign journalists working in Turkey.” The government has denied that it was instrumental in Zeynalov's deportation. Some officials claimed he had deliberately failed to renew his work permit on time so that when he was expelled he could portray himself as a victim. Whatever the case may be, a number of questions still hover over the government's involvement in the matter. Two months ago, lawyers for the prime minister filed a complaint against Zeynalov for having tweeted remarks accusing Erdogan of interfering with the judicial process in order to obstruct the arrest of persons suspected of belonging to groups associated with Al-Qaeda. The lawyers argued that the tweet constituted a direct attack on Erdogan's reputation and a violation of his personal rights. The supporters of the prime minister and the ruling AKP added that the claim that the ruling Party had facilitated the rise of Al-Qaeda in the Syrian civil war by turning a blind eye to the weapons and fighters that were crossing the Turkish border into Syria was part of Gülen's “conspiracy to weaken the AKP and its leader”. As proof they cited the recent resignation of MP Ilhan Işbilen, a close associated of Gülen, from the ruling Party. The second event concerns the restrictions on Internet freedoms that have been put in place in Turkey. When the wave of anti-government demonstrations, known as the Gezi Park protests, struck around eight months ago, Erdogan eyed the Internet as the chief culprit for inciting and sustaining the momentum of the first major and protracted defiance of his party and, above all, of himself. Since then one of his chief obsessions has been how to restrain the social-networking sites that he has claimed have been responsible for “destroying the minds of the youth and stirring up strife”. He has not doubted that such sites have been responsible for triggering the marches of thousands in Taksim Square in Istanbul and for the spread of anti-government protests to Ankara, Izmir and other towns and cities across Anatolia, especially in view of how Egypt's 25 January Revolution was apparently helped along by the use of social-networking sites. Moreover, with the crucial municipal elections just a few weeks away at the end of March, Erdogan knew that he would have to act quickly to restrain the “Internet beast” that was haunting him and his party. The key towards this has been the Internet bill passed in the Turkish parliament last week by a tiny minority, which introduces further restrictions on cyberspace freedoms which the AKP government had begun to encroach on five years ago. Speaker of the parliament Cemil Çiçek and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç issued reassurances: Turkey would not become like China, they said. Few were convinced, however, especially those who had read the transparency report published on Google in January listing Turkey second after China as the world's foremost Internet censor. Opposition parties in Turkey condemned the new law as a flagrant attack on the freedom of expression. Under the law, the president of the Turkish Telecommunications Directorate (TIB) is authorised to block Websites without having to seek permission from a court. More ominously, Internet service-providers will also be required to keep records on Web users' activities for two years and make them available to the authorities on request. Ironically, the ruling AKP sponsored this bill at a time when the government appears to be eager to accelerate EU accession talks. EU officials have been harshly critical of Ankara's suppression of press freedoms and its encroachment on judicial autonomy. It seems unlikely that the Erdogan government would expect the EU to welcome further restrictions on freedom of expression and less transparency in government controls over the Internet. The third event that has signalled problems for Erdogan has been the fact that young Turkish activists are once again on the move. Last week, they moved to rally in Taksim Square and nearby Istiklal Street in downtown Istanbul in reaction to the recently passed Internet law. “Take your hands off our Internet,” the protestors shouted in one of their anti-government chants. As has been the case at every protest march, they also called on the prime minister to resign, this time because of his assault on the last-remaining area of free speech in the country now that the press had been muzzled into submission. Erdogan has claimed that the new law will make the Internet “freer,” and, as if to reinforce his claims, riot police turned on water jets and fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Most fled into nearby side streets and alleyways, while some responded with firecrackers and stones. Turkish state television showed no footage of the demonstrators, the country's broadcasters having long since learned what is expected of them in such circumstances. One thing they have learned is to air, live every statement that Erdogan makes. Yet, even as the prime minister addressed an assembled crowd of his supporters in the western Istanbul district of Esenler, dozens of protestors blocked the entrances to the venue in order to voice their anger at deteriorating standards of living. While cries of “Death to Erdogan's fascism” ring out in Taksim Square, all eyes are turned on the Republican Palace, the seat of the Turkish presidency. Will president Abdullah Gül respond to domestic and international appeals not to ratify the recently passed bill? Many at home and abroad are hoping that he will heed European Commission spokesman Peter Stano's observation that “the Turkish public deserves more information and more transparency, not more restrictions.”
