Erdogan is now silencing his critics in Germany - and it's no joke
So, when a young German comedian called the Turkish leader a "goat -------", in a little-watched broadcast on March 31, you might have thought that the best response – from Turkey's point of view – was a dignified silence. Yes, I suppose it was puerile. And yes, I accept that it was not in especially good taste. But it was what we call a joke. It is utterly bewildering – and slightly shocking – that the Turkish leader has failed to see this.
Incredible though it may seem, the journalist could face five years in jail. But what is truly incredible – indeed, what is positively sickening – is that the German government has agreed at the express request of Angela Merkel that the prosecution should go ahead.
And yet she numbly decided to kowtow to the demands of Erdogan, a man who is engaged in a chilling suppression of Turkish freedom of expression. Erdogan only became president 18 months ago, and yet in that time prosecutors have opened 1845 cases against people accused of insulting him, including a doctor who posted a picture of Erdogan on social media, next to a picture of Lord of the Rings character Gollum.
