Turkish authorities have deported Mark Lowen, the Turkey correspondent of the UK’s public broadcaster BBC, over his reporting of the ongoing protests against the prosecution and jailing of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the BBC reported on March 27.

On March 26, Turkish police raided the hotel where Lowen was staying and detained him, according to the BBC. Lowen was held in custody for 17 hours before being deported.

Lowen has talked about press freedom and democracy while commenting on the issues at hand. His comments suggest he has little idea about just how ugly things have become in Turkey – and the descent of the country into the depths did not start with the detention of Imamoglu eight days ago.

“We will be making representations to the Turkish authorities,” BBC CEO Deborah Turness said.

When making representations, Turness can turn to Richard Moore (@ChiefMI6), head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

Moore is a fluent speaker of the Turkish language. He can help with translation.

No nonsense, please

Since March 23, bne IntelliNews has been parrotting: “The Erdogan regime does not care about all the talk, the human values, the law or anything else in that vein. It has an army, it has a police force, an intelligence service, private security personnel and paramilitary forces. It has tanks, jets, guns and bombs.”

Screenshot: The BBC blamed “human error” for a suggestion on its News at Six that Theresa May would be flying back to Brussels for more Brexit talks in a Second World War Spitfire.

Crackdown

On March 27, Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) provided updated figures on the crackdown on the protests. The regime, the social media account said, has detained 1,879 people since March 2019, when Imamaoglu was detained.

Dozens of journalists, including local correspondents of foreign news services, including an AFP photographer, were among the detained.

On March 25, Yerlikaya’s police mistakenly knocked to the ground an undercover colleague and attempted to detain him, while a reporter of Now TV reported live from the scene.

TV censored, Istanbul under siege

Also on March 27, Turkey's broadcasting watchdog RTUK said that it punished four TV channels, namely SZC TV, Tele1, Halk TV and Now TV, for broadcasting meetings held by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Ebubekir Sahin, head of the RTUK, had previously issued threats to TV channels that were considerinng broadcasting CHP chair Ozgur Ozel’s nightly mass gatherings in front of Istanbul city hall.

Since March 19, the Istanbul governorate has blocked main boulevards and closed bridges in the city and sporadically halted public transportation on main roads and metro lines.

Social media across the country has been periodically throttled.

On March 22, the Istanbul governorate announced that people suspected of attempting to travel into Istanbul to join the protests would be refused entry.

At the city courthouse where the Imamoglu proceedings were held, even MPs were not permitted to enter the courtroom as the charges were presented on March 23. They made a bit of noise and shared some videos, but they kept well away from the courtroom.

Business as usual

Assessing the chances of the Imamoglu detention and prosecution generating a game-changing response, on March 19, bne IntelliNews concluded: “No challenge expected”.

“On past experience, the few media outlets in Turkey that still back Imamoglu’s party […] will kick up a fuss for a few days and some tweets will fly back and forth,” this publication added.

There is no visible sign that a real challenge to the rule of Erdogan is any longer possible in the country. As a rule, whenever a few protesting Turks come together on the street, the police quickly swoop and take them away.

Also, little external pressure is expected.

Regime killed before, it's ready to kill again

If the homicides committed by the Erdogan regime in the past two decades were added up, the number would be a six-digit figure. The map of its crimes covers a geography ranging from Libya to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Just two weeks ago, the jihadists in Syria who are directly organised/financed/equipped/utilised by the Erdogan regime slaughtered some more Alevis (also known as Alawis or Alawites). No one gave a damn.

During the Gezi protests that broke out across Turkey in 2013, the regime killed six people, fractured the skulls of 91 people and inflicted severe eye injuries on 10 people. In all, it wounded at least 7,478 people.

The death toll in the Imamoglu protests remains at zero so far. The regime has not killed anyone yet since it has not felt truly threatened.