Turkish PM: "To Me, Social Media Is the Worst Menace To Society." 418
PolygamousRanchKid writes "Turkey's prime minister on Sunday rejected claims that he is a 'dictator,' dismissing protesters as an extremist fringe even as thousands returned to the landmark Istanbul square that has become the site of the fiercest anti-government outburst in years. With Turkish media otherwise giving scant reports about the protests, many turned to social media outlets for information on the unrest. 'There is now a menace which is called Twitter,' Erdogan said. 'The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.' 'The people are finally standing up, speaking up and fighting for their rights,' said Hakan Tas, a deputy for the Left Party in Berlin's local assembly, who took part in the protest."
Re:Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. (Score:4, Interesting)
You mean islamic dictator ... Turkey has been a secular country since Ataturk, the people see this moron trying to re-islamicise them and don't want to give their freedoms up. The islamic leaders know that the inevitable outcome of freedom means that their influence wanes - they them try to brutalise the people back into line... hardline islamic scum - the biggest threat to world peace that there is
Re:To me... (Score:4, Interesting)
Every society... (Score:5, Interesting)
Every society that can be destroyed by social media should be.
Dark days coming for modern Turkish people.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Last week, at a metro station in capital city of Turkey, a couple who we were hugging and kissing, warned by officers. Next day, about 50 people protested it, one of them injured with a knife by an extreme islamist.
Today in the same speech with his comments about twitter, to a question about this incident, he replied as "yes, i support officer; people must obey moral rules!"
Re:To me... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. (Score:5, Interesting)
He's not a dictator in any sense. A majority of Turks are very clearly supportive of him. There is very little doubt about this.
Very true. Most protestors don't want to admit it, but it is the case (or at least was the case at election time).
The issue here is the conflict between the urban and rural folks in Turkey. Rural areas are not really developed, thickly populated and essentially exist in conditions that modern urban dweller would find atrocious, similar to those found in early 1900s.
This is not entirely correct. A large base of AK Parti support comes from a new weathly ubran elite that has been nurtured by the current government at the expense of both the traditional secular elites and the traditional leftist opposition, who both despise Erdogan. But the AKP has pushed their agenda too far and their crackdown on the media has been pretty atrocious. But they were especially foolish in misjudgoing what the reaction there would be to this particular instance of deploying the always violent police against peaceful protestors. If nothing else, one can hope that all this will result in the police being brought in line since they currently act with impunity.
Re:Islamist hating free speech, news at 11. (Score:5, Interesting)
Precisely. The head of Jordan, King Abdullah, gave a wide ranging interview not long ago. He said Morsi of Egypt had no depth (no shit, Dr. Obvious). But he also said Erdogan thinks of Democracy as a bus ride. When he reaches his destination, he'll get off. My guess is that Erdogan will continue to use Democracy to push Turkey into a religious nutjob state, and when the final rebellion takes place, he'll be no better than Assad claiming outside terrorists are undermining Turkey, hence the special Gestapo tactics he'll employ will have been made necessary. History will have produced yet one more religious zealot who thinks everything he does is an extension of the hand of G-d....or Allah...whatever...it doesn't matter which one he invokes...I just hope it isn't the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I don't want to believe His Noodliness would condone that sort of behavior.