Erdogan lumps the leaks

by Peter Grimsditch January 3, 2011

written by Peter Grimsditch January 3, 2011

Turkey’s fiery, if thin-skinned, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a love-hate relationship with the press. He loves the organizations that show appreciation of his policies and seems to hate those that don’t. Heis prone to threaten the offending publications with lawsuits, while urging their boycott by advertisers and readers alike. Little surprise then that Erdogan should bristle at many of the stories emanating from the Wikileaks disclosure of diplomatic cables over the past few weeks. The notoriously hard-working premier wanted to sue a former United States ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman, for claiming, according to some of the press reports, that he had secret bank accounts in Switzerland. If any such accounts could be found, he proclaimed to the media, he would donate the total deposits to the main political opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). In addition to Edelman, he also wanted to sue the US State

Peter Grimsditch

Journalist, editor, and author Peter Grimsditch’s career began at his college's student publication and led him to become the founding editor of Britain’s Daily Star. He later worked in New York and Turkey as as a correspondent, eventually becoming the No. 2 editor at Lebanon’s Daily Star before inheriting the editorship.

Erdogan lumps the leaks

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