Ertuğrul Özkök - English

When I look at the stage I see German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, another politician, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Dr. Zieter Zetsche, the head of the world's most prestigious automobile brand Mercedes, and two media bosses, one is Turkish and the other is German.

One of the media bosses is Aydin Dogan, the head of Dogan Yayin Holding, and the other is Dr. Hubert Burda, the owner of 'Burda', one of the biggest media institutions in Germany.

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Close relations between the media and the ruling power, leaving aside dictatorship rules, is a very rare thing.

It can also be said that, the democratic feature of a regime starts to transform into a more autocratic, even more totalitarian form, as the media, completely obeying the power, expands.

Observing Turkey from a distance, it could also be said that it is on this same course.

But the issue also has another side.

Very constructive outcomes can result from politicians and media sharing a collective mind and support for reasonable thoughts on important issues for humanity.

We witnessed the results of just such a cooperation, something which is very rare in our business, in Berlin the day before.

Fatih Cekirge, editor-in-chief of hurriyet.com.tr, called me yesterday and asked "Have you seen the photo of Mrs. Hayrunnisa Gul*? The cap under her headscarf has slipped and some of her hair can be seen."

I looked at the photo and noticed that some hair was clearly exposed.

 

Of course, we cannot know if this is a new style or something that was the result of carelessness, and from my point of view, it is not very important.

 

We might have run this as headline news at Hurriyet daily if it had happened four or five years ago.

 

But now, we don’t even consider publishing the photo.

 

I really wonder if Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's statement, "Anybody who doesn't like it can leave this country," directed to certain segments in Turkey's southeastern region, would cost him votes.

If we are searching for an answer to the question of just how much the "love it or leave it" statement would cost and who would be the loser ", we have a very good example.

Hurriyet did not see a fall in readership last year when an angry Erdogan told Hurriyet daily's columnist Bekir Coskun, "if you don't like it, leave the country".

On the contrary, our readership increased.

The same thing happened again and Hurriyet’s circulation rose when he called for a boycott against the newspaper.

Starting with this example, I wonder if we would reach a similar conclusion if we ask if Erdogan would lose votes over his recent statements.

He may lose in the southeast, but I don't think he would lose support in Turkey's remaining regions.

But there is another very important thing that he will lose.

He could lose the "liberal intellectual support" which brought him to this point and which was also very influential during the closure case against his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).