Erdogan Burns thousands of books, shuts down dozens of newspapers, TV stations

Robert el-Fares

The security fist used by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extends to his opponents especially after the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

A new report issued by the organization “Nasmat for Social and Cultural Studies”, entitled “Turkey’s Book Holocaust and Cemetery of Publishing House” revealed that the Turkish culture was not in isolation from the total repressive genocide that the Erdogan government is waging against its opponents, as the government has disposed of huge numbers of books, publications that are related to the Gullen movement.

This hostile view of Gullen’s books forced the academics and researchers studying the service movement to immediately get rid of these books. In one incident, a historian at Tunceli University was arrested after the police found Gullen’s book at his university office. Although this academic himself is anti-Gullen, he was charged with membership in the service movement.

Suppressing free thoughts

Although the main objective was Gullen and his movement, no group or organization was spared the government’s crackdown on cultural and intellectual publications, as it was part of a broader policy to crush any form of criticism and free thinking.

Stifling the publishing world through repression, eternal persecution, renewed bans on Kurdish magazines and newspapers, and police raids against left-wing publishers, represented a new dark era for Erdogan’s cultural and literary scene in Turkey.

Language of numbers speaks

The report stated that during the government of the Justice and Development Party, more than 160 media outlets were closed, 135,000 books were removed from the library shelves, 100,000 were destroyed, 30,000 were burned, 45 daily and weekly newspapers were closed as well as 39 printing and publishing houses, 15 monthly and periodical magazines were closed.

Detentions for possession of Gullen’s books

The report showed that one of the workers involved in the newspaper Zaman decided to dispose of the books the newspaper gave to its readers, but his endeavor failed when a neighbor called the municipality to report the presence of a fire in a vacant land, and when the municipality workers realized that the burned books belonged to Gullen they called the police.

After questioning the man and accusing him of belonging to the Gullen movement, the police released him, as he confirmed that he was in possession of these books because they only connected him to the newspaper in which he was subscribed to.

The report confirms that the Justice and Development Party has systematically seized theaters and artistic bodies, and attempted to deny artists working in these bodies.

The report stated that the record of the Justice and Development Party in the restoration of historical monuments such as mosques, museums, churches and other monuments, its aim in the first place to search for profit and commercial motives, whereby the system of patronage gives companies that satisfy them for the restoration projects without looking at the arts.

Since the attempted coup in 2016, the authorities have dismissed or arrested more than 45,000 police and military personnel, more than 130,000 civil servants, and dismissed a third of the judiciary.

It arrested or imprisoned more than 80,000 citizens, and closed more than 1,500 NGOs for terrorism-related reasons, primarily because of alleged links to the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accuses of masterminding the coup attempt, and which the government has designated as the leader of a “terrorist organization”.ng world through repression, eternal persecution, renewed bans on Kurdish magazines and newspapers, and police raids against left-wing publishers, represented a new dark era for Erdogan’s cultural and literary scene in Turkey.

Language of numbers speaks

The report stated that during the government of the Justice and Development Party, more than 160 media outlets were closed, 135,000 books were removed from the library shelves, 100,000 were destroyed, 30,000 were burned, 45 daily and weekly newspapers were closed as well as 39 printing and publishing houses, 15 monthly and periodical magazines were closed.

Detentions for possession of Gullen’s books

The report showed that one of the workers involved in the newspaper Zaman decided to dispose of the books the newspaper gave to its readers, but his endeavor failed when a neighbor called the municipality to report the presence of a fire in a vacant land, and when the municipality workers realized that the burned books belonged to Gullen they called the police.

After questioning the man and accusing him of belonging to the Gullen movement, the police released him, as he confirmed that he was in possession of these books because they only connected him to the newspaper in which he was subscribed to.

The report confirms that the Justice and Development Party has systematically seized theaters and artistic bodies, and attempted to deny artists working in these bodies.

The report stated that the record of the Justice and Development Party in the restoration of historical monuments such as mosques, museums, churches and other monuments, its aim in the first place to search for profit and commercial motives, whereby the system of patronage gives companies that satisfy them for the restoration projects without looking at the arts.

Since the attempted coup in 2016, the authorities have dismissed or arrested more than 45,000 police and military personnel, more than 130,000 civil servants, and dismissed a third of the judiciary.

It arrested or imprisoned more than 80,000 citizens, and closed more than 1,500 NGOs for terrorism-related reasons, primarily because of alleged links to the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accuses of masterminding the coup attempt, and which the government has designated as the leader of a “terrorist organization”.