World press on media freedom in Turkey and Iranian nuclear crisis (March 22-23, 2014)

Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Serkan Demirtaş headlined "Erdoğan is stealing people’s freedom" devoted to the media freedom in modern Turkey.

"It was during and immediately after last year’s Gezi protests that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) realized the importance of social media, and decided to establish a powerful social media team in order to suppress government opponents. There were reports that the party recruited thousands of people for a massive attack against government critics through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube messages, which often contained threats and intimidation," the article begins.

"Having already declared Twitter and social media as “menaces,” Erdoğan’s policy was lacking intelligence, creativity and content, which led to a total failure of the project. Well, he then did what any ordinary authoritarian leader would do and banned them," the author writes.

"Erdoğan’s move to block access to Twitter can only be described as stealing people’s freedoms. Turkey has 12 million Twitter users and is one of the leading countries in the use of social media, especially in a media environment where the government is exerting all of its efforts to undermine the freedom of the press. A majority of the Turkish media is biased and effectively acts as “Erdoğan’s Pravda,” while the remaining outlets are under huge pressure not to report corruption and graft claims associated with Erdoğan, his family and Cabinet members. Erdoğan had signaled that he was considering shutting down YouTube and Twitter two weeks ago, in order to stop the leaks of his phone conversations with his family members and businessmen, which are considered to be powerful evidence of his corrupt relations. But there are also rumors that the worst has yet to come and that Erdoğan’s rush is to prevent the release of this very worst," the article reads.

"Erdoğan, especially on the eve of the elections, is doing everything he can just to cover up a probe into how millions of euros and dollars of this country have been stolen. Instead of weakening the democratic pillars of Turkey and of giving a major blow to the country’s reputation through his irresponsible and unwise moves, he should allow a total investigation on corruption allegations to clear his and his party’s record. Otherwise, history will cite him among the most corrupt politicians, who in particular stole the future and hope of his nation," the author concludes.

The Jerusalem Post published an article devoted to current situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear programme and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis' impact on the issue.

"Iran’s standing has been radically enhanced via the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Moscow has throughout been Tehran’s main backer in the international arena," the article reads. "Now that Russia is at loggerheads with America and Europe over Crimea, there is even less incentive for Russia to cooperate with the Western effort to curb its leading protégé in the Middle East, to put it mildly."

"The strategy of employing stringent sanctions to force Iran to give up the program that would enable it to develop nuclear weaponry is a thing of the past. As European firms rush to close deals with the Islamic Republic, the residue of the pressure on it becomes a derisive reminder of unkept promises and hollow declarations," the article reads.

"Although we certainly hope the talks achieve what the US and the EU have proclaimed as their goal of stemming the nuclear program, Iranian representatives, newly confident and insolent, show no inhibitions in thumbing their noses at their pro forma interlocutors," the Jerusalem Post writes.

"The international community’s prime motivation to lean on Iran was gone. Reviving it is, perhaps, the logic behind Defense Minister’s Moshe Ya’alon’s assertion last week that Israel cannot rely on Washington to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions," the article reads.

"Ultimately, Israel must look after its own interests, chief among which is preventing uranium enrichment by its arch-enemy. We can only hope that our primary ally, the United States, together with the EU, will ultimately lead the international community in stopping Iran," the authors of the article conclude.