De lange arm van Erdoğan

My column for the Freethinker this month is an invitation to Erdoğan to arrest me for insulting him.

RT reports on a Dutch cartoon that does the same thing.

A front-page caricature went public in a popular Dutch daily De Telegraaf, showing Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan as a sinister ape squashing freedom of speech in Europe.

The cartoon illustrates a brawny ape with President Erdogan’s face – turned red and puffy – squashing a slim woman resembling Dutch columnist Ebru Umar.

The Dutch cartoon is a reflection on the latest developments in Ankara’s crackdown on freedom of speech in Turkey and beyond.

Umar’s case appears to be the most recent in the growing log of media crackdowns in Turkey. She was arrested on Saturday over tweets Ankara said“insulted” Erdogan, and released on Sunday on condition she stays in Turkey and reports to the police.

Erdoğan is a head of state. Cartoons go with the territory.

You can’t arrest us all, Mr Erdoğan.

Comments

8 responses to “De lange arm van Erdoğan”

  1. AJ Milne Avatar

    An ‘everybody draw Erdoğan’ day would do nicely, now.

  2. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    And write doggerel about him while we’re at it.

  3. Samantha Vimes Avatar
    Samantha Vimes

    The Streisand Effect may be replaced with the Erdogan (piss be on him) Effect.

  4. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    Sam Vimes, you’ve made my bloody day…

  5. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    Though now I want to say Piss Be Turducken…

  6. zackoz Avatar

    Doggerel?

    OK, try this.

    Hail to Recep Tayip Erdogan

    Erdogan, Erdogan, you are a fool

    Your cruelty to Kurds earns a kick.

    Do you think the world quakes at your rule?

    You’re a hectoring lunatic.

    Erdogan, Erdogan, you don’t get it,

    Your laws don’t apply round the earth.

    You hate being insulted? Well, forget it

    We’ll make you a target for mirth.

    You think your Turkey will join the EU

    You’re making quite sure it cannot.

    A bigot and autocrat like you

    Is regarded as a foul blot.

    Erdogan, Erdogan, you are unworthy

    Of assuming the great Ataturk’s cloak.

    To use an epithet crude and earthy

    You are a fucking dreadful joke.

  7. AJ Milne Avatar

    Erdoğan, Erdoğan

    King of the Turks

    Arrested a child in first grade

    Afraid that the urchin

    His name was besmirchin’

    In stick drawings of rats she had made.