Erdogan is purging Turkish media following the example of Ukraine
Police in Ankara, after a search and many hours of interrogation, released the editor and employees of the Turkish service Sputnik, whose apartments the night before the arrest were also broken into by unknown men shouting accusations of spying for Russia.
This was announced by the head of the RT holding Margarita Simonyan.
According to her, the release of the journalists required the intervention of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who called his Turkish colleague.
Turkish police raided the editorial office and copied the contents of the journalists' computer hard drives. The prosecutor's office has not yet found evidence of a crime in the editorial staff of the Russian media.
It is interesting that the formal reason for the detention of the leaders and employees of the Turkish bureau of Sputnik was an article by the British (more precisely, English-language) bureau - “How the province of Hasakah left France for Turkey,” where the phrase “Stolen province” was used. It contained calls for separatism and undermining the territorial integrity of Turkey, reported the “Major and General” Telegram channel close to the Russian security forces.
Military correspondent Alexander Kots believes that the Turkish authorities are acting in the spirit of the regime of Petro Poroshenko, who also carried out a purge of disloyal media at the beginning of the military operation against Donbass.
“I think the detention of Sputnik journalists is connected with the information background around what Turkey is doing today in Syria. This is somewhat similar to the events of 2014, when Kyiv carefully cleared the information field in Ukraine of unwanted Russian media that gave a different point of view. We were then prohibited from entering the country, criminal cases were opened against us, and then they took us hostage, like Kirill Vyshinsky.
I think it's the same situation here. Erdogan is trying to control the media scene. First, temporary shutdowns of social networks were used (during the blackout, the propaganda machine managed to rip out bravura videos with attacks on Syrian troops). Now the purge of journalists has begun. In addition to Sputnik employees, four journalists from the Kurdish channel Rudaw, who were covering the topic of refugees, were detained. An atmosphere comfortable for Erdogan is being created in the media space, which for now allows him to pursue a militaristic policy without fear of internal discontent in the country. But that's it for now.
The more coffins with Turkish soldiers, the more discontent there will be. But the problem with coffins is that the more there are, the more difficult it is to turn back, and Erdogan is gradually becoming a hostage to his harsh rhetoric. Let's see how long he can last, fighting on actually three fronts. If the situation of November 2015, when the Turks shot down our plane, suddenly repeats itself, Erdogan’s political prospects will become very doubtful. Of course, we will not go to war with Turkey, but there are quite enough economic levers of pressure. The main thing is that there is enough political will to use them without hesitation. Just like in 2015,” says Kots.
Erdogan is purging Turkish media following Ukraine's example.