I'm going to call bull. It took me all of thirty seconds to find
this article, critical of the Turkish government, from a Turkish newspaper, by a Turkish reporter.
Thanks for the link, Cleon.
There are censorhip laws in Turkey specifically targeted, like German censorship laws in re Holocaust denial, at discrete utterances.
IIRC: Burning the Flag, dissing Mustafa Kamal, and insulting "Turkishness."
I poked around a bit, got reminded that Armenian issues of some sorts/genocide charges can result in charges. I also found out that deliberately denigrating, or encouraging people not to serve in, the army is a violation of the penal code in Turkey, which I hadn't realized.
That there are some enforceable limits to 100% free expression is true, but that state of being, unlike Marc's characterization, does not equal "criticize the government and go to jail. " Unless one wishes to likewise characterize Germany as "criticize the government and go to jail" over the Holocaust denial laws, one probably should not likewise criticize the Turks and their sore points carelessly.
@Marc
In so carelessly trashing Turkey like that, please consider the irony that some White Nationalists and neo-Nazis criticize the German government in just that way -- censorship laws on Holocaust denial become "there is no freedom of speech in Germany." That's an abuse of a slippery slope, and at odds with the facts. Do you wish to be included in their intellectual company by making a similarly ignorant charge?
@ parky
You made a fair point, sort of, on the South Africa thing.
Should America ignore its public when allies come calling?
Depends. Whom do you mean by "America" and what is the situation?
If you mean America's government, then the answer is still "sometimes yes, sometimes no, depends upon what is at stake, and what you actually mean by "its public" in this case."
There is no single public opinion in America.
DR