After Cracking Down On Tens Of Thousands Of Enemies, Erdogan Says He's Dropping His 2000 Lawsuits Over Insults
For the last few months we've poked fun at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ridiculously thin skin. As we noted, he had filed upwards of 100 lawsuits per month against people for "insulting" him -- and this included things as ridiculous as posting a meme on social media that compared Erdogan to Gollum.
Of course, more recently (as you've heard) there was a coup attempt in Turkey, which failed, and Erdogan has spent the last few weeks basically using the coup as an excuse to crush all his enemies.
Uh... thanks?
Of course, he notes that this is a "one-off" meaning he can start bringing more cases pretty soon. Besides it hardly seems like a gesture of goodwill when it follow destroying the lives of 100s of thousands of people to further entrench your own political power and interests. Of course, he also has a message to anyone with an opinion on all of this:
Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160729/15414835107/after-cracking-down-tens-thousands-enemies-erdogan-says-hes-dropping-his-2000-lawsuits-over-insults.shtml
Of course, more recently (as you've heard) there was a coup attempt in Turkey, which failed, and Erdogan has spent the last few weeks basically using the coup as an excuse to crush all his enemies.
In the first 48 hours, around 7,000 people were detained, arrested, or dismissed from their jobs. That number has been rising constantly, reaching around 66,000 people from all layers of society, but consisting mostly of government employees.And now, having done that -- including having shut down much of the media in the country and arrested a ton of journalists, Erdogan is apparently in a good mood. He has announced that in a "show of good will" he's going to drop those thousands of cases against people for insulting him.
Add to that the family members of those arrested and dismissed and you will reach a number of 250,000-300,000 potential new opponents, most of whom were not involved with the "other" side or had no direct links with it. The memory of the killings, the hatred, and violence, the split in the army and government agencies about who was on which side -- all of this is truly traumatic for the Turkish nation.
Uh... thanks?
Of course, he notes that this is a "one-off" meaning he can start bringing more cases pretty soon. Besides it hardly seems like a gesture of goodwill when it follow destroying the lives of 100s of thousands of people to further entrench your own political power and interests. Of course, he also has a message to anyone with an opinion on all of this:
"Some people give us advice. They say they are worried. Mind your own business! Look at your own deeds."Yeah. Perhaps Erdogan should look at his own deeds as well.
Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160729/15414835107/after-cracking-down-tens-thousands-enemies-erdogan-says-hes-dropping-his-2000-lawsuits-over-insults.shtml