Turkey's 'Islamist' leader Erdoğan says more journalists will see inside the prison.

Turkey's 'Islamist' leader Erdoğan says more journalists will see inside the prison. (FOT).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said more journalists will be taken into custody, brushing off criticisms over media freedom and claiming that nowhere in the world the media is as free as it is in Turkey.

Speaking in a symposium in Ankara where critical news outlets were not allowed to cover, Erdoğan claimed that “nowhere in the world is the media as free as it is in Turkey” as he responded criticisms in the wake of a government-backed police raid on journalists on Dec. 14.

Speaking at the Great Turkey Symposium on Friday, Erdoğan said that a group of journalists in Turkey are involved in terrorism and even murder. Commenting on the Dec. 14 detention of journalists — including Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı and Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca — Erdoğan said, “They were detained for supporting an illegal organization.”

Without mentioning Karaca, who remains behind bars for allowing the broadcast of a soap opera episode which, authorities claim, targeted an al-Qaeda-linked group, Erdoğan said the STV executive is among journalists who helped shape an “illegal organization that seems like a legal one.”

“But where are other journalists?” Erdoğan asked, vowing that more journalists will be taken.

Erdoğan’s remarks came a day after prosecutor Hasan Yılmaz appealed a court’s decision to release Dumanlı, who was blamed for allowing the publication of two columns and a news report several years ago.

In response to a manifesto issued by Turkey’s prominent intellectuals and authors, who condemned the Dec. 14 operation, Erdoğan said: “You intellectuals, don’t journalists commit crimes? If they do, they should pay the price for it. Journalists don’t only hold pens, they might as well hold guns.” The president also said that Turkey currently has only seven journalists in prison.

The highlight of Erdoğan’s speech came when he said: “Those [journalists] in jail make propaganda against Turkey. Nowhere in the world is the media as free as it is in Turkey. I can confidently say that. The media is so free that acts not allowed even in democratic countries occur [in Turkey]. I personally have experienced this. My family experiences this. The insults targeting them [my family members] cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world. There is no limit to these insults. Not even in the US or in EU countries is this possible.”

Erdoğan stated that a number of journalists were detained by police in the US last week and mentioned a case in which a reporter from Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency was dragged across the ground by a US policeman during protests in the town of Ferguson in August.

Erdoğan also slammed European countries for criticizing deteriorating press freedom in Turkey and said they should instead try to find a solution for what he said was increasing Islamophobia in the continent.

The EU, which Turkey has been seeking to join for decades, said the media raids ran counter to European values, a criticism already dismissed by Erdoğan. On Friday, the President repeated his discontent, with a visibly harsher tone.

“We are not Europe’s scapegoat,” Erdoğan told a symposium of civil servants. “We are definitely not a country that Europe can point its finger at and scold. Instead of criticizing us, Europe should find a solution to increasing racism and Islamophobia.” Hmmmm......Reminds me of the Stalinist era when intelligentsia when to sleep with packed suitcases waiting for the knock on the door.

Related: Todays Zaman:Abdullah Bozkurt

It must be crystal clear by now that political Islamist zealots, led by the divider-in-chief Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will do anything and everything to stay in power, even if that means suspending the rule of law and trampling on constitutional rights.