Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been the big winner out of Europe’s refugee crisis.
Last month, he secured billions of euros in foreign aid. The deal also included visa-free EU entry for Turkish citizens. And, significantly, the EU in its desperation to solve the refugee crisis has promised to give more attention to Turkey’s EU accession process, which has now been struggling to get any traction for 29 years.
Erdogan has some leverage because Turkey is the main transit route for refugees from the Middle East to the EU. As a result, Turkey controls the gates regulating how many Syrian migrants can get into Europe.
Not content with this, Turkey has asked Germany to prosecute a comedian for performing a satirical poem about its president. Turkey has form in this area, suppressing dissent at home. Since August 2014, 1845 criminal cases have been opened against Turks for insulting their president.
The comedian in question Jan Böhmermann sat in in front of a Turkish flag beneath a small, framed portrait of Erdo?„?Ÿan, reading out a poem that accused the Turkish president of, among other things, “repressing minorities, kicking Kurds and slapping Christians while watching child porn”. Here’s a clip.
Here is the dirty ditty with the translation
Sackdoof, feige und verklemmt,
ist Erdogan der Präsident.
Sein Gelöt stinkt schlimm nach Döner,
selbst ein Schweinepfurz riecht schöner.
Er ist der Mann der Mädchen schlägt,
und dabei Gummimasken trägt.
Am liebsten mag er Ziegen ficken,
und Minderheiten unterdrücken,
Kurden treten, Christen hauen,
und dabei Kinderpornos schauen.
Und selbst Abends heißt statt schlafen,
Fellatio mit hundert Schafen.
Ja, Erdogan ist voll und ganz,
ein Präsident mit kleinem Schwanz.
Jeden Türken hört man flöten,
die dumme Sau hat Schrumpelklöten,
Von Ankara bis Istanbul,
weiß jeder, dieser Mann ist schwul,
Pervers, verlaust und zoophil
Recep Fritzl Priklopil.
Sein Kopf so leer, wie seine Eier,
der Star auf jeder Gangbang-Feier.
Moronic, cowardly and inhibited
Erdogan is president.
His you know what stinks like Doner,
even a pig’s fart smells better.
He’s the man who bears girls,
while he wears a mask of rubber.
He prefers to fuck goats,
and oppress minorities,
Kick Kurds, beat up Christians,
while watching child pornography.
And even evenings instead of sleeping,
instead fellatio with a hundred sheep.
Yes, Erdogan is without a doubt,
a president with a small cock.
One hears all the Turks whistling,
the stupid sod has shrivelled testicles,
From Ankara to Istanbul,
everyone knows this man is gay,
Perverted, verminous and zoophile,
Recep Fritzl Priklopil.
His head is empty, as are his balls,
the star at every gang bang party.
Now Germany, not a country renowned for it sense of humour, is allowing authorities to prosecute Böhmermann. Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was up to prosecutors to decide if they will bring charges against Böhmermann,
Böhmermann has a strong defence against potential charges. He could argue that his poem is a wider piece of satire about free speech, rather than a deliberate insult. Meanwhile, he says he and his team will take a break until May 12.
This case is important because it’s more than just about Erdogan’s fragile ego. Freedom of speech, the refugee crisis and Syrian policy are all in the mix.
And there could be more problems on the horizon with German president Joachim Gauck saying the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was “genocide”. His comments were made in the lead up to the German Bundestag getting ready to vote on whether the mass killings of Armenians by Turks a century ago constituted genocide.
We can expect the Turks are not going to take that lying down.
