Turkey’s Twitter 'Fenos' Work to Marginalize Critics
Women journalists, in particular, face the wrath of pro-AKP pundits.
On July 25, Egyptian columnist Ghada Sharif penned a rather passionate column in support of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the deputy prime minister of Egypt. Her column drew a heated response in social and print media from Turkey’s pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) pundits, who expressed awe of Sharif for “seeking to be Gen. Sisi’s fourth wife or concubine.”
A columnist from Yeni Safak, Abdurrahim Boynukalin, tweeted, “Ece Temelkuran would not have said 'no,' either,” implying that there are Turkish women who would even accept polygamy with a general if it means AKP government will be toppled. Temelkuran is a vocal Turkish woman columnist who has been known to challenge AKP policies.
There is no evidence that Temelkuran has ever expressed such sentiments, nor have any generals made Turkish news recently. Intriguingly, there is a new “passionate” trend along Sharif’s line, in Turkish social and print media, surrounding Erdogan's cult of personality. This trend is just another method for silencing freedom of expression. Though the systematic public declaration of love might seem innocent and natural to the unsuspecting eye, when it is rewarded through cronyism, and when those who fail to profess sufficient “love” are continuously singled out, it becomes a form of repression. To explain this trend, here are a few poignant examples.
Contributors to Al-Monitor's Turkey Pulse are well versed in the challenges the Turkish press faces. Yavuz Baydar explained how the other financial interests of media bosses are tangled up with basic press freedoms to control the news reporting in Turkey. Baydar recently lost his ombudsman position as a punishment for speaking up. Hence, there are several methods available for the Turkish authorities, from incarceration and censorship to threats of firing, in their creation of a government-friendly media structure.
