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Miss Turkey Gets 14 Months Prison for “Publicly Insulting” Turkey’s Erdogan
The Duran ^ | June 1, 2016 | ALEX CHRISTOFOROU

Posted on 07/21/2016 9:08:49 AM PDT by Fitzy_888

Miss Turkey 2006 has been found guilty for sharing a poem that insulted Turkish President Erdogan.

Erdogan’s dictatorship continues to crack down on potential threats to the Turkish state. This time, the dangerous Miss Turkey 2006 (27-year-old Merve Buyuksarac) has been found guilty for sharing a poem that insulted Sultan Erdogan.

The Istanbul court gave Miss Turkey a suspended sentence of 14 months for “publicly insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on condition that she does not insult the Sultan again within the next five years.

Merve Buyuksarac is the latest of over 2,000 defamation cases President Erdogan has filed in two years.

The Turkish law bans insulting the president…something that is quite unbecoming of a NATO member, and EU partner.

The case was based on a satirical verse she reposted on her Instagram account in 2014.

The so-called ‘Master’s Poem, ’ an adaptation of the Turkish national anthem, allegedly criticizes Erdogan, who served as prime minister for more than a decade prior to becoming president and has often been called “Buyuk Usta” [the Big Master]. The poem did not mention Erdogan by name, but made reference to a corruption scandal that allegedly involved his family.

During the hearings, the President’s lawyer, Hatice Ozay, stressed that Buyuksarac’s Instagram post had gone beyond “the limits of criticism” and was in fact “an attack” on Erdogan’s personal rights.

Buyuksarac was briefly arrested at the time the post was made, but then freed as she denied insulting Erdogan. The case however resurfaced, with Tuesday’s court’s decision based on a previously rarely-used Turkish law that forbids insulting the head of state.

The law has been used increasingly often lately to silence those critical of Erdogan’s policies. Since becoming president in 2014, he has filed up to 2,000 cases under this law in trials targeting journalists, foreign and domestic, academics, politicians, comedians, and now – models.

This spring has in fact been rich with cases of Ankara’s witch-hunt on those critical of the current government.

Also on Tuesday, Cengiz Candar, a former columnist for Radikal and Hurriyet newspapers who’s been in the profession for over 40 years, appeared in Istanbul court accused of insulting Erdogan in a series of articles he wrote in the summer of 2015, criticizing Turkey’s renewed conflict against Kurdish rebels. The veteran journalist and an adviser to the late Turkish head of state Turgut Ozal faces up to four years in prison if found guilty.

“These court cases must come to an end,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. “These trials must immediately end with acquittals so that the presidency of the Turkish Republic can preserve its respectability.”

In March, the Turkish government shut down and reformed opposition newspaper Zaman, previously a strong critic of the President. Overnight the newspaper turned into a government mouthpiece.

Four Turkish academics faced trial after having been charged with spreading “terrorist propaganda.” Their alleged crime was to denounce the renewed conflict with Turkey’s Kurds, being part of a group of more than 1,000 scholars who signed a declaration in January that was critical of the Turkish government’s military intervention into the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country.

Foreign journalists have also been targeted and arrested. The latest incidents involved German TV journalist Volker Schwenck and Dutch journalist Ebru Umar. Schwenck was going to the Turkish-Syrian border to report on refugees, but instead was denied entry into Turkey and spent six hours in detention at Istanbul airport. Umar was briefly detained in Turkey over Twitter posts critical of the Turkish President.

Turkey also shut down Russian news agency Sputnik’s website in the country and blacklisted its Istanbul bureau chief, refusing him entry to the country and seizing his residence permit and press credentials

“Erdogan’s administration doesn’t seem to tolerate any criticism at all. Any journalist, would they criticize Erdogan, risk being imprisoned and legally harassed. In short, journalism is in coma in Turkey,” Dr. Y. Alp Aslandogan, President of the Alliance for Shared Values and a Board Member of the Gulen Institute told RT, adding that he overall situation with respect to fundamental freedoms in Turkey will only get worse unless the Turkish people interfere.

“The fate of the country is up to the people of Turkey. Unless there is an outcry from Turkish people I don’t know how this situation can be resolved. I’m just hoping that Turkish people will awaken to what’s going on.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: erdogan; muslimwomen; muslimworld; turkey
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“The fate of the country is up to the people of Turkey. Unless there is an outcry from Turkish people I don’t know how this situation can be resolved. I’m just hoping that Turkish people will awaken to what’s going on.”
1 posted on 07/21/2016 9:08:49 AM PDT by Fitzy_888
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To: Fitzy_888

Obama supporting this tyrant. Gives you an idea as to what he’d love to do here to us.


2 posted on 07/21/2016 9:10:11 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: Fitzy_888

Ignoring the further bit of evidence our ostensible NATO ally Erdogan is a full-blown Islamo-fascist, “Miss Turkey” has a strange ring to it.


3 posted on 07/21/2016 9:10:46 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Fitzy_888

Oh, for the days when even little kids understood that sticks and stones could break their bones but words would never hurt them.


4 posted on 07/21/2016 9:11:26 AM PDT by bgill (From the CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: Fitzy_888

She made a big misturkey.


5 posted on 07/21/2016 9:12:05 AM PDT by paddles ("The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." Tacitus)
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To: Fitzy_888

Erdogan = friend of Obama


6 posted on 07/21/2016 9:12:46 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: TigerClaws
Obama supporting this tyrant. Gives you an idea as to what he’d love to do here to us.

The wonderful, fresh air of the Arab spring.

7 posted on 07/21/2016 9:13:17 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: paddles

She was Hungary. But later slipped on Greece.


8 posted on 07/21/2016 9:13:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Fitzy_888

“I’m just hoping that Turkish people will awaken to what’s going on.”


It is probably too late for them. The peasants buy the Islamofacist socialist rhetoric and all those who would oppose him are now being purged. This is a mess and I don’t think it will end well.


9 posted on 07/21/2016 9:13:50 AM PDT by volunbeer (ABH for President! - Anybody but Hillary)
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To: Fitzy_888
There are certain rules and standards that must be maintained on this site... duty bound to keep the integrity of Free Republic...



10 posted on 07/21/2016 9:14:09 AM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: rjsimmon

Glad you found those, because in most of her pics she is pretty darn homely.


11 posted on 07/21/2016 9:15:00 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: rjsimmon

I’ll sponsor this poor immigrant!


12 posted on 07/21/2016 9:16:21 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: rjsimmon

pretty sure she wont look like that after a year in a Turkish prison.


13 posted on 07/21/2016 9:16:23 AM PDT by Mr. K (Trump will win NY state - choke on that HilLIARy)
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To: BenLurkin

[ Erdogan = friend of Obama ]

Erdogan is a complete ISLAMO-NAZI

Obama also loved the Mooselimb Brotherhood leader of Egypt and hated the Military Coup that kicked his sorry ass out and hated Al-SiSi who could truly be the only leader Egypt had in a while who could be called a moderate when it comes to Islam.

Tells us that Obama is at the very LEAST a Islamist supremacist SYMPATHIZER, if not OUTRIGHT ENABLER...


14 posted on 07/21/2016 9:16:38 AM PDT by GraceG (Only a fool works hard in an environment where hard work is not appreciated...)
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To: Fitzy_888

15 posted on 07/21/2016 9:16:50 AM PDT by laweeks
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To: rjsimmon
I'd be willing to spend 6 years in jail with her.


16 posted on 07/21/2016 9:18:41 AM PDT by laweeks
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To: rjsimmon

Asylum at my house?


17 posted on 07/21/2016 9:19:04 AM PDT by rfreedom4u (The root word of vigilante is vigilant!)
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To: Fitzy_888

Despotic rule. Wow. Wait until he gets his military forces built up. It’s going to be a big show.


18 posted on 07/21/2016 9:20:14 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Fitzy_888

Erdy’s just probably pissed because she turned him down.

Hell hath no fury like Muslim tyrant scorned.


19 posted on 07/21/2016 9:23:48 AM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: Fitzy_888

What judge would let her off right now with Erdogen arresting judges he disagrees with?


20 posted on 07/21/2016 9:24:23 AM PDT by Vic S ( David Rockefeller killed Larry McDonald (KAL 007))
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