The United States continues to give overwhelming support to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he continues his expansion of authoritarian power, the dismantling of secular government in favor of Islamic rule, and the destruction of free speech and the free press in the country. Now Erdogan’s insatiable appetite for censorship and sanctions of critics has extended to outside of Turkey where he is demanding that critics be silenced. Not only has his thuggish security details been criticized for roughing up protesters in Europe and the United States, but Turkey is demanding action from governments against his critics.
Erdogan’s ire was recently directed against a satirical music video on German television, which the Turkish government demanded should be “removed from the air.” It appears that the Turkish government has lost any notion of free speech and was mystified how anyone could be allowed to air a critical piece against Erdogan . . . even on German television.
Not surprisingly, the German government rejected the demand.
Here is the video:
The video is a parody of a 1980s song by the German pop star Nena, “Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann,” (“Anyway, Anywhere, Anytime”) which is changed to “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan.” The facts that it reports however are not satirical but actual. The video details Erdogan crackdown on democracy and basic freedoms as well as his infamous intolerance for any criticism.
The only good thing is that the Turkish effort to force Germany to censor the video has lead to an overwhelming desire to see it. In the 24 hours after the Turkish demand, the video was viewed nearly three million times more on YouTube, including more than a quarter of a million views of the new Turkish version.
Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.
I ain’t seeing much difference between Erdogan’s philosophy, and stuff like this which happens here in the good old USA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MummfbuTO08
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I’m afraid les isles is right. Mr. E has claimed that he is open to criticism but not to satire, which he considers an insult. The thing is, the “Erdogan Song” isn’t really satirical. It’s facts sung to a catchy tune.
In France Islamic terrorists punished the french satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, for words and pictures they published which the islamic terrorists considered as blasphemous. Soldiers, enforcing Islamic law entered France and executed several people. Everybody is aware of this event. What makes the event worth telling in the context of Erdogan’s current path, which becomes more extreme by the week, is his attempt to silence his critics who are broadcasting/publishing legally in a foreign country. To date, he is simply asking the foreign country to intervene on his behalf. Since this approach will fail in most democratic countries, Erdogan’s next step can be to take action to otherwise silence the wrongdoers. Such action could be to arrest them if they set foot, in Turkey. Other Islamic states sympathetic to Erdogan, or hostile to western criticism of Islam in general can do the same. The point of principle here is that Islam has already demonstrated that it will punish the exercise of free speech emanating from within and also from outside an Islamic territory which it deems critical/blasphemous and will do so by applying national law or charia law globally. Criticism of islam or its religious and government leaders from any country, on Facebook for example, becomes susceptible to retaliation. Erdogan is a step away from Charlie Hebdo.
J – yes, it is ironic that the federal court made that reference to multi-kulti when ruling against home schooling. School is compulsory in Germany. That means no days off to go to Six Flags or Disneyland, so I can see where Americans might find that offensive. The problem is, if they allowed home schooling lots of Turkish girls would be kept home. And the fact is that you can learn a lot about German society and culture while attending school. In addition, German schools will actually prepare you for a job. Is that so bad?