US Vice President Biden chides Turkey over freedom of expression

“We do know it would better if we can reach a political solution but we are prepared…, if that’s not possible, to have a military solution to this operation in taking out Daesh”, Biden said at a news conference after a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

US Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday, January 23, that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is a threat to Turkey like the Islamic State (ISIS), condemning the Kurdish militants as “a terror group plain and simple”.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has told reporters in Istanbul that Turkey is a strong example for the entire region as to what a vibrant democracy means.

The meeting is part of a process designed by the United States and its European and regional partners supporting the opposition, as well as key Assad backers Russian Federation and Iran, to end Syria’s domestic conflict and allow the parties to join forces against the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq.

This is while during the early years of rule, Washington cited Turkey as an example of Islamic democracy in the Middle East.

More than a dozen academics were arrested over the petition, which accused the state of violating human rights and conducting a “deliberate and planned massacre”. But more recently, reforms have faltered and President Erdogan himself has demonstrated a more authoritarian style.

Last week, he denounced as “dark, nefarious and brutal” more than 1,000 signatories, including USA academic Noam Chomsky, of a declaration that criticised Turkish military action in the largely Kurdish southeast.

Turkish security forces briefly detained 27 academics on charges of promoting terrorist propaganda.

To assuage Turkey’s concerns about the Syrian border, the Obama administration has pledged that the Syrian Kurdish fighters it supports will not move west beyond the Euphrates River.

He also met journalists who had been fired after criticising the Turkish president and government. He added ISIS, the PKK and the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front were “simply terrorist groups and here in Turkey, they threaten and do harm and are of severe outcome to the interest of the people of Turkey”. It denies intimidating media bosses, many of whose parent companies hold lucrative government contracts in other areas of industry.

“If you don’t have an ability to express your opinion, to criticize a policy, to offer competing ideas without fear of intimidation or retribution, the country is robbed of opportunity and the country is being robbed of possibilities”, Biden added.

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