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I warned you, boss!
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About a year ago Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan devoted half an hour of his parliamentary speech to threatening "that media group" that he claimed was covering the controversy around the Islamic turban in a "wicked way." It was the same media group that also publishes this newspaper.
The coverage Mr. Erdoğan did not like was an assortment of international headlines on Hürriyet’s front page from prominent publications/newswires including the Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times and Le Monde. And I had agreed with Mr. Erdoğan. I wrote that Hürriyet should have quoted more serious publications like the Ulema Times, the Muslim Post, Wahhabi Daily News, the Observant, the Daily Turban or the Mecca Guardian (In Turkey, even the trains don’t run on time!, Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, Feb. 15, 2008).
In addition to that, as a columnist who felt a wholehearted responsibility to his employers I wrote that I wished to save my bosses from corporate consequences and commented, that the headscarf must be allowed not only in universities, but also in kindergarten too, actually the headscarf must be made a must-wear in government offices, that the constitutional amendments to liberalize the headscarf are perfect examples that Turkey deserves full membership in the EU, since they make Turkey a perfect democracy, that the next chief of general staff should have a wife who wears the headscarf, and even, long live Homo Islamicus Democraticus! Finally, I concluded, a year ago, with a warning note: This columnist’s humble advice to Hürriyet’s publishers: Be wise, just do as I do and escape the corporate consequences.
Sadly, they did not listen to my advice. Now our publishing group, the champion tax payer in the media industry for the past several years, has a small ticket on its window: 826 million Turkish Liras (over $500 million) in penalties for tax irregularity. How very nice!
Perhaps our editors do not understand. These days the smallest traffic fine we could be getting cannot be less than $100,000. If Ertuğrul Özkok is spotted spitting on the pavement, he could be prosecuted for 6 to 8 years in prison. Even Bekir Coşkun’s pet dog could face a few years in a pet jail for "running like a dog on the grass in a public area." But that’s all for a better democracy in Turkey. And Mr. Erdoğan and his men are none other than liberal democrats. And yes the elephant they painted with pink stripes is a zebra.And it is only a simple twist of fate that the company run by Mr. Erdoğan’s son-in-law appeared as the sole bidder for Turkey’s second biggest media outlet, or that two state banks financed that deal with loans at terms never made public, or that a generous tax penalty landed coincidentally on the media group for which Mr. Erdoğan never hides his hatred. How many times has he called on his supporters to boycott "those newspapers"? It was another coincidence that one of Mr. Erdoğan’s top party officials appeared in public only to defend the tax fine. This was the first time in Turkish political or fiscal history that a senior government politician had to defend the logic behind a tax fine. Yes, Turkey is a land of bizarre coincidences. The truth is quite disturbing, and not only for the man who owns this media group. There are strong chances that a tax court or a supreme administrative court would correct the penalty, wholly or partly. But the danger is somewhere else. Mr. Erdoğan is a genuine autocrat and a fake liberal. He is a genuine Islamist and a fake democrat. And that his blood feud with his opponents is pushing Turkey into a darkness that Turkey’s western friends will repent.
According to the International Press Institute (and the South East Europe Media Organization), the decision to impose the unprecedented tax fine on the Doğan Media Group raises concerns about possible efforts to silence this group, a frequent target of attack by Mr. Erdoğan. "Prime Minister Erdoğan has escalated his verbal attacks on Dogan’s newspapers for their reporting," IPI Director David Dadge said. "He has called for his supporters to boycott Doğan and other newspapers, but this has not silenced them. The timing and unprecedented size of this tax fine raise serious concerns that the authorities are changing their approach from rhetoric to using the state apparatus to harass the media." The IPI is playing with fire. Mr. Erdoğan may not send them a tax fine, but I would not be surprised if Turkey, now with a temporary seat on the UN Security Council, proposed a resolution for the closure of the Institute. As for Mr. Dadge, he should stay away from any visit to Turkey. He may be arrested immediately upon his entry into the Turkish soil for tax fraud, if not for drug smuggling.
In addition to that, as a columnist who felt a wholehearted responsibility to his employers I wrote that I wished to save my bosses from corporate consequences and commented, that the headscarf must be allowed not only in universities, but also in kindergarten too, actually the headscarf must be made a must-wear in government offices, that the constitutional amendments to liberalize the headscarf are perfect examples that Turkey deserves full membership in the EU, since they make Turkey a perfect democracy, that the next chief of general staff should have a wife who wears the headscarf, and even, long live Homo Islamicus Democraticus! Finally, I concluded, a year ago, with a warning note: This columnist’s humble advice to Hürriyet’s publishers: Be wise, just do as I do and escape the corporate consequences.
Sadly, they did not listen to my advice. Now our publishing group, the champion tax payer in the media industry for the past several years, has a small ticket on its window: 826 million Turkish Liras (over $500 million) in penalties for tax irregularity. How very nice!
Perhaps our editors do not understand. These days the smallest traffic fine we could be getting cannot be less than $100,000. If Ertuğrul Özkok is spotted spitting on the pavement, he could be prosecuted for 6 to 8 years in prison. Even Bekir Coşkun’s pet dog could face a few years in a pet jail for "running like a dog on the grass in a public area." But that’s all for a better democracy in Turkey. And Mr. Erdoğan and his men are none other than liberal democrats. And yes the elephant they painted with pink stripes is a zebra.And it is only a simple twist of fate that the company run by Mr. Erdoğan’s son-in-law appeared as the sole bidder for Turkey’s second biggest media outlet, or that two state banks financed that deal with loans at terms never made public, or that a generous tax penalty landed coincidentally on the media group for which Mr. Erdoğan never hides his hatred. How many times has he called on his supporters to boycott "those newspapers"? It was another coincidence that one of Mr. Erdoğan’s top party officials appeared in public only to defend the tax fine. This was the first time in Turkish political or fiscal history that a senior government politician had to defend the logic behind a tax fine. Yes, Turkey is a land of bizarre coincidences. The truth is quite disturbing, and not only for the man who owns this media group. There are strong chances that a tax court or a supreme administrative court would correct the penalty, wholly or partly. But the danger is somewhere else. Mr. Erdoğan is a genuine autocrat and a fake liberal. He is a genuine Islamist and a fake democrat. And that his blood feud with his opponents is pushing Turkey into a darkness that Turkey’s western friends will repent.
According to the International Press Institute (and the South East Europe Media Organization), the decision to impose the unprecedented tax fine on the Doğan Media Group raises concerns about possible efforts to silence this group, a frequent target of attack by Mr. Erdoğan. "Prime Minister Erdoğan has escalated his verbal attacks on Dogan’s newspapers for their reporting," IPI Director David Dadge said. "He has called for his supporters to boycott Doğan and other newspapers, but this has not silenced them. The timing and unprecedented size of this tax fine raise serious concerns that the authorities are changing their approach from rhetoric to using the state apparatus to harass the media." The IPI is playing with fire. Mr. Erdoğan may not send them a tax fine, but I would not be surprised if Turkey, now with a temporary seat on the UN Security Council, proposed a resolution for the closure of the Institute. As for Mr. Dadge, he should stay away from any visit to Turkey. He may be arrested immediately upon his entry into the Turkish soil for tax fraud, if not for drug smuggling.
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