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2016 Turkish coup, Asli Erdogan, authoritarian government, authors, Bill of Rights, censorship, Fethullah Gülen, free speech, freedom of the press, human rights, journalists, Kurdish Movement, Kurdistan Workers Party, Kurds, media, newspapers, Ozgur Gundem, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, The City in Crimson Cloak, Turkey, tyranny, writers
During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, a Trump supporter (background here) was photographed wearing a t-shirt that read: “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.”
Perhaps the t-shirt’s message was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the message landed with a dull thud. Free speech and a free press are pillars of the U.S. Bill of Rights, even if those freedoms are abused by certain quarters. There is little room to joke about such matters.
And such matters as a free press become more poignant in light of international attacks on a free press, particularly in Turkey.
There, in the wake of a coup attempt to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, mass arrests of journalists have been undertaken, media outlets closed, and many other civil and military purges undertaken.
To humanize the situation in Turkey, simply follow the stories (here and here) of Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan (no relation to the Turkish president).
