A pro-Israel Turk (also anti-islamization) colleague of mine tells me of the Finnish President’s words to the Turkish media, which hasn’t been reported on in the Finnish media:
Wow, the Finnish President said “Turkey is today one of the closest allies of the Republic of Finland”? What the hell? I didn’t know Finland had such an ally. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Finnish President said something like this 20 years ago, but today?
Here’s what happened when a journalist asked Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he was a dictator
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was placed in the unusual position of being asked a critical question by a journalist on Tuesday afternoon.
At a press conference alongside his Finnish counterpart at a press conference in which he addressed the terrorist attack on the capital, Ankara, in public for the first time, the authoritarian president was asked by a reporter if he was a dictator.
Today’s Zaman correspondent Abdullah Bozkurt, who was also at the press conference,reports that the Finnish journalist, named elsewhere as Yle News’ Tom Kankkonen, asked Erdogan:
People are afraid of you. There are people who say you’re a dictator. What do you say to that?”
Here was the president’s response: After enquiring as to the reporter’s newspaper, Erdogan went on to say:
If I was a dictator, you would not be able to ask this question.
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan
NOTE: If it was a Turkish journalist, he’d be disappearing soon enough. Erdogan doesn’t have to be a full throated dictator to act in dictatorial ways, much like Obama. However, Erdogan is on record in throwing his opposition into prison, so too bad this YLE journalist (in a rare display of actual journalism) didn’t follow up with another question to challenge his dismissal of the question itself.
Also, the Finnish YLE journo in question is Tom Kankkonen, who’s simplistic book on Islam in Europe (with a portion on the Counter-Jihad), mentions your truly, mentioning this report of mine I gave at the first ever Counter-Jihad conference in Brussels.
Erdoğan'a 'diktatör' sorusunu soran gazeteci Tom Kankkonen bakın kim çıktı? http://t.co/A3tV9RlsMM pic.twitter.com/UMtIG7Sc5c
— A Haber (@tvahaber) October 15, 2015
