Ece Temelkuran: Erdoğan Can’t Hide Any Longer
Source:The Nation Date:20Feb2023
An excellent article lying bare the human tragedy following the earthquake and how Erdogan prioritized damage control, revenge and self-promotion instead of helping his people
For an average human, this kind of evil is incomprehensible, so when we tell the world, they wouldn’t believe [it],” read another tweet. What struck my people most was the significant gap between the selfless solidarity effort encompassing the entire country and the regime’s priority to save face. But this time, after several disasters mishandled by the state that Erdogan single-handedly controls, they knew that the classic cover-up with the propaganda machine wouldn’t suffice. The dunghill was too big—even for a regime that held 96 percent of the media under strict control and prosecuted all its critics. This time, Erdogan’s classic move—bragging ruthlessly about his success after mishandling a situation, comfortably confident that he wouldn’t be challenged—was not going to work. Even the mainstream media, ruled by the regime’s supporters, was fracturing from outrage. The reality was too devastating; journalists’ basic human dignity leaked through the cracks.