Sir, – The Turkish ambassador (August 8th) states that the purge of journalists and academics is to "defend and advance our rights rising from a hard-earned tradition of free and fair democratic processes".
In the 2016 Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index survey, Turkey ranked 151st among the 180 countries listed, hardly an indication of free and fair democratic processes.
Indeed in 2014, when two Turkish reporters, Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, reported video footage of trucks linked to Turkish intelligence agencies supplying arms to Islamist groups in Syria, the initial reaction of the government was first to censor it, then to claim the truck was supplying humanitarian supplies, and then finally to accuse the journalists of espionage. Dündar has since been jailed and could now face additional charges of supporting the Gulenist movement that the ambassador states has infiltrated all sections of civil society.
It is ironic, given that until relatively recently this movement and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP were quite comfortable bedfellows.
As Turkey slides into even greater authoritarianism, could all effective opposition now be conveniently targeted as shadowy Gulenists? – Is mise,
ERIC CREAN,
Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.