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Erdogan Is Becoming A Control Freak

erdogan-with-warriors

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

The bizarre world that churns inside Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s presidential palace reached a new zenith with the unveiling of surveillance control rooms inside, giving him unprecedented ability to personally spy on seventy seven million Turkish citizens. In a feat of technical engineering rivaling that of George Orwell’s Big Brother, the president will certainly enjoy the spectacle of his new spyglass.

According to Al-Monitor, the system has 143 displays that allow President Erdogan to tap into closed-circuit television systems in the streets of eighty one of Turkey’s provinces along with its government’s Mobile Electronic System Integration (MOBESE) and those used in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

With the system about to become live, Erdogan will now be able to personally watch all public demonstrations, city life, military and police operations, and other events he finds of concern.

The system is not limited to just government operated video systems, the control center is wired to monitor cellular 3G traffic and television broadcasts, the Gendarmerie, the Disasters and Emergencies Management Directive, Information and Technologies Authority (BTK), and the intelligence services.

Erdogan’s palace also maintains a junior varsity version of the NSA with three massive servers storing all MOBESE data archives. A workstation is set up by the BTK will permit the unfettered access to all data. Military operations can be transferred from the Chief of Staff’s Operations Bureau to the White Palace.

Erdogan also directed that the Crisis Management Center at the country’s Prime Ministry be tapped to transfer operations directly to his control center.

125px-flag_of_turkeysvgPresident Erdogan shows almost complete intolerance of dissent or questioning and is known for his hostility to the internet and various freedoms of expression enjoyed by Turkey’s citizenry; yet his need for complete surveillance in every corner of government and the lives of all individuals borders on the pathological and in many respects paranoia. He is showing many of the hallmarks of a transition into a dictator increasingly driven by narcissism, intolerance and an underlying fear perhaps of overthrow.

He seems to have a nostalgic dream of the grand days of the Ottoman Empire merged with a complete surveillance apparatus and full integration into the fabric of Turkish Society. His world is one where a single person writing a text message on Twitter or SMS is something that should be scrutinized personally. Every street corner must be watched; every Donner Kebab shop is suspicious. Control is most certainly his goal.

By Darren Smith

Source: Al-Monitor Online

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

60 thoughts on “Erdogan Is Becoming A Control Freak”

  1. Paul

    I grew up with the influx of American companies, advertising, products, etc inundating Canada. Now, with the borders loosened and the global village concept, companies cross pollenate or cross fertilize (take your pick) from the US to Canada and from Canada to the US. I have friends in the US that work for Canadian companies and vice versa. This is a good thing. Hopefully the superior aspects of each country will stick and both countries will profit beyond simply commercially. The one complaint I continue to hear from Canadian companies going to the US is the health care insurance situation. In Canada that does not figure in the cost of doing business as much. Then, of course the taxes are higher.

  2. Issac:

    Hard to pass up that vast pool of credulity that fundie religionists represent. He had good teachers. Look at the Repubs here with the evangelical crowd.

  3. Nick

    Cold blooded dictator, thug, a rose by any other name. Don’t get lost in semantics. Erdogan is riding the Islamic fundamentalist routine to absolute power, just like the rest of the Islamic countries. It’s god’s will that I be in power and to remain in power I have to chop off your head. Now is that so hard to understand?

  4. Joseph Rathgen:

    I suggest you research the biochemistry of sucrose and fructose and their effects in the human body. You’ll find they have the same I’ll-effects as ethanol which we know is a toxin and which is regulated. Bloomberg is just ahead of the curve on this issue which will become more pressing as the population gets sicker and sicker. One of the less appealing qualities of the ignorant is that they rarely understand that they are so.

  6. Who are those guys in the comic opera uniforms around him? Is that Erdogan’s janissary guard, or was he visiting Disneyland?

  8. Isaac, Erdogan is no more an Islamic fundamentalist than am I. He is a cold blooded dictator who thinks going the hardcore Islamic route is the winning ticket. He will be whatever it takes to control.

    1. The one guy is probably a Hamas supporter as he now has Hamas with him. ‘Agency (Shin Bet) has evidence that the deadly attacks against Israelis were planned at the Hamas headquarters in Istanbul. In November, the Shin Bet reported the arrest in the West Bank of members of a cell preparing to attack Israeli targets, who had received military training abroad under the leadership of Hamas in Turkey.

      Last August, speaking at the World Conference of Islamic Sages in Turkey, Arouri admitted that Hamas was behind the “heroic action carried out by the al-Qassam Brigades, which captured three settlers in Hebron.” The three teenage boys were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas operatives, an incident that triggered the spiral of violence that led to the vicious 50-day war in Gaza.

      In December, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon asserted that Hamas operatives in Istanbul were plotting terrorist attacks to be carried out in the West Bank and Gaza. “Hamas,” he said, “is trying to build terrorism infrastructure in Judea and Samaria that will carry out attacks in different forms, and we must work aggressively and determinately against this.”

      Well, Nick, – they are using Religion for cover, that is for sure 😉
      http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5324/hamas-turkey

  9. Here is another song that fits Erdogan. From West Side Story.

    You’re a Turk, You’re a Turk!
    You’re a Turk all the way.
    From your first cigarette …
    To your last dying day.

  10. I’m Erdogan the Eighth I am!
    Erdogan the Eighth I am , I am!
    I got married to the widow next door.
    She’s been married seven times before..
    And everyone was an ErdoGan!
    It wouldn’t be a Willy or a Fred.

    Cause there ain’t no name like Erdogan.
    Erdogan the 8th I am!

    (second verse same as the first)

  11. OK Paul, you get first prize in the how to connect it with Obama contest. David must be sleeping.

    Regarding Erdogan sh*t might be hitting the fan soon cuz Erdogan is starting to court Chinese arms dealers for missile defense systems which puts him squarely at odds with NATO. Turkey has been sucking somewhat vis a vis NATO but installing Chinese systems in a NATO country, systems that are not compatible with Western systems, will cause a ruckus. Turkey has definitely not helped close off thugs making their way to Thugland, has allowed oil to be exported by thugs to pay for the thugs, and has been an out and out accomplice standing by while the thugs run amok right next door. Erdogan’s fear that by allowing US forces to use bases in Turkey to attack the thugs is the precursor to the paranoia shared by the Islamic world. Either you agree and wrap your wife in a bed sheet or we chop her head off. Sounds like a well balanced, successful, and confident society.

    The beginning of the end of Turkey’s relationship with the West starts when Erdogan does stuff cuz he was told not to. He gets to tie in patriotism, liberty, etc. and wave those flags. The only hope is if the military which is almost totally secular and not in line with the Islamic fairy tales, takes him out in a coup. One can only hope. Turkey is the best defense against the nonsense coming up from the South.

  12. “What’s the story here? Every country on the planet with the resources spies on it’s citizens to this extent or worse..”

    InalienableWrights,

    I’m wondering the same. But this blog has long been obsessed with Erdogan and his personality. Especially this author.

    Hahaha Obama is soooooo jealous!!! Putin. Even more!

  13. Erdogen made a deal with ISIS to get the Turk back that were being held by ISIS, it probably had to do with not helping the Kurds when he could have. This guy is not a friend of the U.S. or humanity

  15. Erdogen is just like Putin. A cold blooded dictator. Ideology means NOTHING to either, just power and control.

  16. Erdogen makes me very nervous. He has that freak Arouri, who has lived in Turkey since 2010 in his happy clutches.
    This entity vows to kill every last Jew on earth. President Erdogan has repeatedly described Hamas militants as “freedom fighters.”

  18. So, he is catching up with us a bit. We still have our eyes in the sky.

  19. At least he still lets his people purchase more than 20oz soft drinks at a time. I bet Michael “Namny” Bloomberg and Eric Holder fly over every Friday night and join him in his home theater for the live “citizen surviellance matinée” show.

    Thanks for the heads up. I was just about to write something very nasty about Erdogan. I’ll make sure I spell his name wrong. 😧

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