Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Problem with Turkey

. Saturday, August 14, 2010

Johann Hari reports on an American journalist jailed in Turkey for reporting on human rights abuses against the Kurds:

The excellent young American journalist Jake Hess - who is a good friend of mine - has just been imprisoned in Turkey in extremely worrying circumstances. Hess has been factually reporting from Southern Turkey for over a year now on way the Kurdish civilian population is being treated.


Here is the article for which Hess was arrested.

This is only the most recent in a disturbing trend in Turkey of silencing dissidents and oppressing minority groups. Dani Rodrik recently wrote about the troublesome trials of former military officers, and questioned whether Turkey can still be referred to as a secular democracy.

Both Hari and Rodrik might be accused of bias -- Hari because of his friendship with Hess, and Rodrik because one of the former military leaders is his father-in-law -- but as these cases increase in frequency and severity hope begins to wane that Turkey will continue to develop into a strong, secular, democracy. Obviously things are not yet decided, but the recent history is grim.

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The Problem with Turkey
 

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