Journalist Acarer: Under pressure, AKP resorts to war

"The AKP, as soon as it comes under pressure, resorts to war policies. Racism in Turkey has reached the highest level," says journalist Erk Acarer.

The critical journalist Erk Acarer made the headlines in recent weeks, especially because of the attacks on him in Berlin. The journalist, who is in exile from Turkey, was attacked by "unknown persons" in front of his apartment in Berlin, and his name is on a "hit list” of the Turkish state.

"How long will the German state continue to close its eyes?"

In an interview with ANF, the journalist comments on the Turkish government's relations with the German government and the AKP's current war policy. He sees nothing new in the aggression of the AKP/MHP regime, even if it has reached a new quality. He classifies the attack on him politically: "The current attack has a technical and a political dimension. The German state is protecting me, so there is no problem on a technical level. Unfortunately, however, we do not know how long the German state will continue to support the Erdoğan regime behind the scenes, even if it continues its protective measures and turns a blind eye to paramilitary forces. Germany concludes trade, arms, and refugee agreements with Turkey, and as long as these continue, such activities by Turkey abroad, namely attacks on dissidents, will continue. They will continue as long as the Erdoğan government feels disturbed by the opposition."

"Kurds targeted by the government"

Acarer sees the Kurdish population in particular as being targeted by the AKP/MHP government. He tells, "The best way to maintain racist policies in Turkey is to polarize society with nationalist rhetoric. The HDP is useful to the Erdoğan government in many ways, and whenever the government comes under pressure, an enemy image is constructed. This constructed enemy image could be the secular circles or the Alevis. In order to understand why so much emphasis is placed on ethnicity, we must decipher the AKP's position. Looking at recent events, most of society is aware of the chaos that the AKP could cause if it loses the elections. For example, if we think about the fires in many cities, there is an attempt to create an anti-Kurdish mood through formations such as 'Children of Fire' (Ateşin Çocukları). There is an attempt to consolidate society through lies, but the gratifying thing, as I believe, is that the reverberations of this policy of hatred in society are not the same as before. For dissidents from Turkey living in Europe, attacks on intellectuals in Europe were surprising because they were the first since World War II, but not in a methodical sense in relation to the AKP/MHP coalition and its attitude toward the opposition that continues to this day."

"Fraternization with Erdoğan"

Acarer says, "Unfortunately, we are in the era of right-wing governments in European states and America," and continued, "Leaders of states from China to Russia to the United States have fraternized with Erdoğan. Therefore, it is not surprising that I do not have very high expectations for democracy. As a journalist, I want to continue to do my job and I recommend this to my colleagues. Our friends in Turkey were and are also under attack. Therefore, it is important at this point to state that the war policy of the AKP/MHP bloc is the most fundamental problem."

The journalist concludes by saying, "We must fight to make Turkey a place worth living and sharing, where there is true democracy, freedom of belief and secularism. Just recently there was a racist attack in Konya. In this time when racism has reached a peak in Turkey, if we can explain and name that the global war policies and the policies of the AKP/MHP government are the source of all the problems, we can be more effective on this issue."