Erdoğan converts Turkey to dictatorship, migrants and the AfD, Saudi Arabia seeks helpers against Houthis

Erdoğan is turning Turkey into a dictatorship – and Germany looks away

Migrant associations call for protection from the AfD – is the Federal Government listening to them?

Saudi Arabia comes under fire from the Houthi militia – but hardly anyone can help the Kingdom

Turkish journalist Murat Ağırel was already under house arrest for his work, but that did not seem to be enough for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. His government arrested Ağırel last week, apparently because of a critical article that had not even appeared. Ağırel wrote in a message: I have been arrested many times for articles I have published. But this is the first time I have been arrested for a story I never wrote.

Protest for the imprisoned Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu: Dismantling Democracy

The arrest of Ağırel is just one of many blows that Erdoğan uses to smash the rest of what remains of critical public opinion in Turkey. The government shut down one of the last independent TV stations last week with Halk TV, and access to “T24”, one of Turkey’s oldest and most respected news sites, has been blocked (more on this here).

“Turkey was never a paradise for journalists, but I don’t think it was ever such a hell,” writes my colleague Can Dündar, who himself had to flee Turkey ten years ago. In parallel, Erdoğan is more ruthless than ever against the opposition. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a rival to the president, has been in custody for a year and a half. Several of his party friends were also arrested. Opposition leader Özgür Özel was removed from his party office by a court.

I was a correspondent for SPIEGEL in Turkey from 2016 to 2019. Even then, Erdoğan dismantled democracy, but since the arrest of İmamoğlu, this development has accelerated dramatically (more here). Erdoğan might suspect that he can no longer win free elections, so he is finally turning his country into a dictatorship. Turkey disappears behind an iron curtain, but in Germany hardly anyone takes much notice of it.

More background here: Turkey has never been as hell for journalists as it is now

When talking and writing about the AfD and the “worries of the people”, it is usually to explain the success of the right-wing extremists. It is then about the supposed fears of the citizens, which one must “finally take seriously”, for example about immigration, Islam, globalization (more here).

AfD politician Siegmund (right): “Existential threat”

Rarely is it about the concerns of people who would probably be affected first of all by a right-wing extremist government, for example minorities. Several migrant umbrella organisations have now raised the alarm (more on this here). They have called on those in power to do more to protect migrants in view of a possible AfD takeover in Saxony-Anhalt. “The developments in Saxony-Anhalt are for many people an existential threat,” said Mehtap Cağlar, the Federal Chairman of the Turkish community in Germany.

At the federal level, the AfD has recently been discussed primarily in terms of power strategy. Is the firewall standing or is it falling? Should the CDU move towards the AfD or would that be its end? It is time for the socio-political debate to be intensive. The Federal Government should take the appeal for help from migrant associations seriously and consider how a plural Germany can be defended.

More background here: »We don’t let our memory be captured« – how Jewish students defied AfD politician Tillschneider

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi did not spare pathos. His government will “never forget the brothers of the Gulf,” he said. She will do everything she can to protect Saudi Arabia. But as Sisi decided last weekend, it is still open whether and in what form Egypt actually supports Saudi Arabia militarily in the dispute with the Houthi militia in Yemen. Turkey and Pakistan, which have just concluded a defense pact with the leadership in Riyadh, have not yet seriously intervened in the conflict (more on this here).

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Business Model in Danger

The crisis for Saudi Arabia’s ruler Mohammed bin Salman, MbS for short, has long been existential. In Yemen, the Houthis have not only driven government forces allied with Riyadh from large parts of the Red Sea coast. They have also long since attacked Saudi Arabia itself. Drones hit the international airport in Riyadh and an important oil pipeline. The attacks put the Saudi Arabian business model in danger: Crown Prince MbS rules the country like a dictator, but he promised citizens and investors stability and security.

The fact that it is now over is less due to the leadership in Riyadh than to one of Saudi Arabia’s closest partners, the USA. The Houthis work closely with the regime in Iran. Without the US war against Iran, there would probably not have been the latest escalation in the Gulf (more on this here).

US President Donald Trump wanted to overthrow the Islamic Republic with his attack, but it seems for the moment more consolidated than ever. Instead, Trump’s Arab allies are now wavering. However, the US government continues to reject a military operation in Yemen. MbS is largely fighting for itself so far.

Saudi Arabia is trapped between loss of face and escalation

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