Is this the government that the Finnish government wants to do business with? Really?
He also has a certain way of enforcing control over dissent, even in Helsinki.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses reporters during a news conference at the Government Banquet Hall in Helsinki, Nov. 6, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva)
Erdogan’s ‘morality police’ assume duty
It all started with the leak of remarks made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a closed meeting over the weekend. According to media reports, Erdogan said university students — boys and girls — were sharing flats in the western province of Denizli due to a shortage of dorms, and that this was unacceptable. “Students, boys and girls, are living together in the same homes because the dorms are insufficient. This is incompatible with our conservative democrat nature. I’ve seen this in Denizli. I’ve instructed the governor. Whatever is necessary will be done,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.
Government spokesmen, however, were quick to deny the alleged remarks. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and Erdogan’s chief adviser Yalcin Akdogan both dismissed the reports as fabrications and said that Erdogan had actually referred to dorms and “apart” accommodations housing students.
The controversy was beginning to fade when Erdogan appeared before the media and confirmed he did make the remarks. He asserted he stood behind his statement: “I’m not a person to deny what I have said. We have failed to meet the demand for dorms in some places, which has led to problems concerning accommodation in [private] homes. Our security forces are receiving intelligence about those places, our governors are taking action. Why is this a reason to be annoyed? Those flats are being reported by neighbors in the same buildings. It is unknown what is going on there. All kinds of messy things are happening. Parents are crying out, ‘Where is the state?’ We have to show where the state is.”
Erdogan did not stop there and indicated explicitly what action the state could take: “The governors already have authority, and we want them to be more active on the issue. If need be, we could also pass a legislative arrangement.”
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has been making a special effort recently to separate the dorms for male and female university students. The Youth and Sports Ministry has launched a drive to make sure that male and female dorms are not located on the same campus.
Erdogan’s remarks, however, indicate that the government intends to also prevent male and female students from sharing homes. Yet the “legislative” arrangements he mentioned appear quite problematic in the context of the Turkish legal system.
Article 20 of the Turkish constitution states: “Everyone has the right to demand respect for his/her private and family life. Privacy of private or family life shall not be violated.”
Under current Turkish law, police cannot enter a home without a judicial order unless a crime punishable with a heavy sentence is being perpetrated inside the property at that very moment.
Erdogan’s remarks about legislative measures brought to mind the controversy in 2004, when he insisted that adultery would be criminalized, but then backed down. Erdogan said at the time that the government was working on new penal code provisions that would make it a crime for spouses to have extramarital sexual relations. The draft, however, was shelved following public outcry and harsh European Union criticism.
Read more: H/T Holger Danske
