AKP-style democracy

In some of those letters the "democratic" supporters of the "ever-democratic" AKP government even go to the extent of making "friendly" warnings that a day will come when the "anti-AKP fanatics" will be "exterminated" in Turkey and that it would be in the best interest of "honest critics" to readjust their position regarding the AKP and Premier Erdoğan, "before it is too late."

This article, in a way, is a collective response to such "friends" as for obvious reasons no one can have so much time to write individual reply letters to each and every such "self democrat."

Is it possible not to criticize the AKP government if despite warnings of the Higher Electoral Council, or YSK, and although some Istanbul shops have started selling "Tunceli refrigerators" or "Tunceli dishwashers", the Tunceli governor is still distributing household appliances even at hamlets without electricity?

Is it possible to accept cancelation (on Nov. 11, 2008) of the accreditation of Evrensel newspaper’s Sultan Özer (together with her six other colleagues) to the Prime Ministry because she was not turning up at every press event at the Prime Ministry? Is the Prime Ministry a school with compulsory participation requirement for accredited journalists?

Or, is it possible to accept the "false reporting" accusation against some other journalists whose accreditation was canceled particularly in view of the defense made in court by the lawyer of former Prime Ministry spokesman Akif Beki that it was normal for government officials because of the interests of the country to condemn as false a report which indeed was correct? Are journalists required to report only stories considered "correct" or "appropriate" by the government?

Is it possible to consider as "routine" the ambush on the house of İlhan Selçuk, the dean of journalists at 4:30, in the middle of the night, on March 28, 2008 and his subsequent detention for several days despite his advanced age?

We have seen last in the Mustafa Balbay’s case. After Balbay was detained for the second time, and this time placed behind bars, all of a sudden a document was serviced to the media by some deep throats in the prosecutor’s office. The document was allegedly the "notes" Balbay took at his meetings with some top generals. The notes were vividly demonstrating some deep discussions over how to stage a military coup in the country. Apalling? Yes.

But, if those notes were part of the accusations against Balbay, how could they be served to some media outlets? Servicing testimonies of the accused to some media outlets has become a routine of this "judicial case of the century" as the Islamist media has been saying.

Is this what some of our prosecutors and judges understand from the principle of secrecy of investigation and the notion of everyone is innocent until conviction?

Is it normal for any government to help out a business conglomerate buy a nationalized newspaper and TV station with a very easy credit provided by two state-owned banks? Particularly if the CEO of that conglomerate is son in law of the prime minister, would not such a development produce some bad smell? Yes, I am referring to the 2007 Sabah, ATV sale to the Calık group.

Since the Lighthouse charity fund scam started being investigated by the German judiciary and developments were starting to be reflected in the Doğan media group’s newspapers and TV stations, the prime minister is out at least a dozen times asking people to boycott the media critical of the government. Most recently, during the election campaign speeches he renewed his boycott call many times, while the Finance Ministry launched a safari to hunt the Doğan group with a ludicrous tax fraud charge.

Can anyone still call this a democracy? Right, perhaps a democracy a la AKP!