Turkeys Crackdown on Criticism Continues as Journalists, 10K Civil Servants ArrestedBy James Holbrooks Turkish police detained the editor and senior staff of a leading opposition newspaper on Monday over its alleged support for a failed coup in July, writes Reuters, in a move described by a top EU politician as the crossing of a red line against freedom of expression. That E.U. politician, Parliament President Martin Schulz, speaking via Twitter, additionally stated that The ongoing massive purge seems motivated by political considerations, rather than legal and security rationale. To date, over 110,000 people have been either fired or suspended, and 37,000 have been arrested during Erdoans ongoing consolidation of power. The news agency raided, Cumhuriyet, is described by Reuters as one of few media outlets still critical of Erdogan. When asked to comment on his detention, one journalist, as he was being carted away, said: I work for Cumhuriyet, isnt that enough? Another employee, cartoonist Musa Kart, told reporters: This is a comical situation. It is not possible for people with a conscience to accept this. You cant explain this to the world. I am being detained solely for drawing caricatures. Over the past three and a half months, some 170 varied newspapers, magazines, and television stations have been shut down in Turkey who, incidentally, is both a NATO member and a candidate for E.U. membership. Mondays news directly follows the revelation that 10,000 more government workers among them academics, teachers, health workers, prison guards and forensic experts had been sacked over the weekend, in a move made legal through two new executive orders published on the Official Gazette late on Saturday. As highlighted by the BBC, the last edition published by Cumhuriyets senior staff featured a plain but highly appropriate headline: A few copies of Mondays edition had been left at the gates of Cumhuriyets premises. The headline read simply: Coup against opposition. The story was about the suspension of thousands of civil servants and other laws introduced under emergency decrees. Only hours afterwards, the editor-in-chief and several writers were detained and arrest warrants issued for over a dozen of the papers executives. Erdoans crackdown on free speech and journalistic license has riled some of his formerly staunch Western allies such the the United States, who purport to view freedom of expression as a paramount ideal. The situation is complicated further by the fact that Turkey, under Erdoans newfound boldness, is displaying an independent streak on Middle Eastern battlefronts that lends an element of uncertainty to those events, particularly in Iraq and Syria. The complexity of it all was aptly characterized in another Monday article by Reuters: The unprecedented crackdown at home and his bellicose stance on the world stage have alarmed Western and some regional allies, who fear the NATO member and EU candidate nation is becoming an ever more unpredictable partner, and one over which they have decreasing leverage. This article (Turkeys Crackdown on Criticism Continues as Journalists,10K Civil Servants Arrested) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to James Holbrooks andUndergroundReporter.org. If you spot a typo, please email the error and the name of the article toundergroundreporter2016@gmail.com. Image credit: Flickr/AK Rockefeller. Gog/Magog Always be a light that is shininginthedark I think the elected Turkish government has the right to protect itself from such events plotted to cause riot and send the country to a situation like what is happening now in Egypt and Syria. Better to informed public well than resort to Sedition Acts (John Adams). Natural born rights should be inviolable. Here in the U.S. they own the entire MSM, so no need to shut it down. Truth is what they say, yellow is red and they decide what is real and what is illusion or collusion, as in the case of Huma and Killary. Jade Helm15 was a training exercise that the DoD used with the intent of covertly rounding up dissidents. It looks to me like those special operations forces are using the skills that they honed. and are probably expanding training at the same time to bring it back home when the time comes. 