Erdogan’s full frontal assault against NYTimes

An increasingly authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the New York Times of meddling in the affairs of his country through a critical article. In fact, he told the influential US paper to “know your place”.

He stated that the editorial “literally gave orders to the United States”.

“As a newspaper, you should know your place [...]You are meddling in Turkey’s affairs by writing something like this. By publishing this editorial, you are overstepping the limits of freedom” he stated angrily, without specifying if the “limits” refer to American standards of press freedom or the ones now “enjoyed” in Erdogan’s Turkey.

The New York Times’ article was entitled “Dark Clouds Over Turkey”, and was critical of Erdogan’s presidency, accusing him of unfair practices prior to elections: “The United States and Turkey’s other NATO allies should be urging him to turn away from this destructive path”, said the editorial.

Erdogan retorted by saying “Who are you? Could you say something like this to the US administration?”. Apparently he’s never been briefed on Watergate, the Iran-Contra Affair and the Monika Lewinsky furor, amongst many others.

The article referred to the crackdown imposed by the Turkish president against the Dogan media Group, which owns Hurriyet Daily News.  Even the president of the media group, Aydin Dogan, 79, stated that some politicians in Turkey “try to stigmatize us as an adversary without even giving the slightest justification”.

Erdogan, however, seems hell-bent on crushing the major Turkish media group. “The new constitution and the presidential system will block the way of these coup-makers forever,” was his slightly ominous warning.