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Turkey Says It's Investigating 10,000 Social Network Users (engadget.com)
Turkey has been cracking down on internet activity at a frenetic pace ever since an attempted military coup in the summer, and it's now clear that there are a lot of people caught in the dragnet. From a report: The country's interior ministry has revealed that officials are investigating about 10,000 social network users suspected of backing terrorism. About 3,710 people have been questioned in the past 6 months, authorities say, and 1,656 were arrested. The rest were let go, but 1,203 of them are still under watch. There's one inescapable question, however: just how many of those internet socialites really support terrorism?
You misjudge what is happening in Turkey. Erdogan has openly expressed an explicit goal of creating an Islamic state, and dismantling democracy. That is what he was elected to do. His actions have been broadly popular, and the current crackdown has broad support.
If you know any Turks, you might be surprised that they could support this. But the Turks that you know are likely urban, cosmopolitan people from Istanbul or Thrace. Erdogan's base is in rural Anatolia, where people are less educated and far less tolerant. They hate Christians (especially Armenians) even though they have likely never met one. They hate Shiites. They hate and fear the Kurds even more. And they are sick of the Istanbul elites treating their culture and their religion with perceived contempt. Erdogan is their champion.