WHAT DO TURKS AND AMERICANS HAVE IN COMMON?

This past Wednesday, in what The Wall Street Journal has called "the latest move by Turkish authorities to clamp down on its opponents," the mayor of Istanbul was sentenced by a Turkish court to nearly three years in prison, for the crime of “insulting public officials.” The mayor is favored in opinion polls across the country to win the presidential election this June against the current President who has presided heavy-handedly for twenty years over a government that has brought an 85% inflation rate to the nation, and wiped out half the value of its currency.

The mayor of Istanbul has been under his government’s “guns” for a long time. He was charged in 2019 with “insulting public officials” when he successfully challenged government efforts to cancel election results that had put a large number of opposition candidates into municipal offices.

Does any of this hounding, harassing, trumping up of charges, arresting and attempting to arrest and imprison opposing candidates sound familiar? Do the attempts by “public Officials” in Turkey to silence its opposition whoever they are, wherever they are and in whatever way possible sound familiar? It should. It’s happening right here. This is what corrupt governments do. And this is how people lose their freedom.