Friday, 30 December 2016

More Terror Than Tea Served In Turkey

A judge in Turkey recently remanded in custody a cook on a charge of insulting the President. The cook, who just happened to work at one of the few opposition newspaper left in the new Islamic state which is forming on the EU's southern borders, had offered mild dislike of the president. 

Senol Buran - A Man In Deep Trouble
Senol Buran - A Man In Deep Trouble
 
What did he do? Well apparently Senol Buran, the cafeteria head at newspaper 'Cumhuriyetis', is alleged to have told police "I would not serve that man [Erdogan] a cup of tea." after he was held up as part of security measures for a speech being given by Mr Erdogan.
For that 'crime', he faces imprisonment for up to four-years, possible (or even likely), torture, but in any case he will be found guilty, as under the justice system now left in Turkey after the arrest or sacking of secular judges, you are now pretty much automatically guilty of treason or related offences, such as insulting President Erdogan, if that's what you are arrested for.

Ahmet Sik, a well known investigative journalist, was also arrested recently .... his tweets were enough for him to be accused of spreading "terrorist propaganda" ..... the tweets mostly dealt with the treatment of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.

Turkish Justice Is Rough On The Accused .... Some Of These Officers Show Signs Of Beatings
Turkish Justice Is Rough On The Accused ....
 Some Of These Officers Show Signs Of Beatings

Turkey's judges are no longer considered to be independent of the state by many authorities, such as the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), which declared that Turkey’s judiciary “cannot be seen to be in compliance with European Standards for Councils for the Judiciary”. This following arbitrary arrests, sackings and trials that breach Turkish as well as European/International laws.

There are still apologists for the Turkish 'Islamic democracy' we were seeing emerge both before, and after the failed coup, noticeably in Merkel's Germany, but how they can stand up and keep a straight face, while telling us Turkey is still an EU candidate state is just proof of what liars politicians are. They obviously have never heard of paying Danegeld in the EU.

Turkey applied to join the EU in 1987, but wasn't even able to reach a point to begin EU accession talks until 2005. However in the 11 years since then, it has only managed to meet one of the EU 35 policy "chapters". Technically a country is only ready to join the EU when it has met the criteria in all 35 chapters, but Turkey has been moving in the opposite direction on nearly all areas .... so was failing on virtually all chapters.

The relative silence across EU capitals is shameful ... even the Euro MPs vote to freeze Turkey EU membership talks was largely ignored as 'realpolitik' took over the Chancelleries of the EU.

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