On late-night television in Germany in March, comedian Jan Böhmermann recited a rude poem about Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan. This was deemed offensive by Erdogan.
If anyone thought that poetry is not taken seriously, they were wrong. The German government was requested by Turkey to enable the criminal prosecution of Böhmermann.
Angela Merkel has been widely criticised over German compliance with this request. Her view is that the courts must decide the matter, as German law does, in fact, forbid insulting foreign leaders.
Merkel is already under fire for allowing over one million migrants into Germany last year. Her popularity at home is severely dented.
The timing of this incident is unfortunate. The European Union, with Merkel in the lead, is trying to strike a deal with Turkey to stop more migrants from streaming into Europe. Essentially, the agreement is that migrants will stay in Turkey in exchange for visa-free travel within the EU for Turkish citizens.
Viewing the prosecution of Böhmermann as an attack on free speech, the UK Spectator launched the ‘President Erdogan Offensive Poetry Competition’. It offered a prize to the most offensive poem, to demonstrate that dissenting voices cannot be silenced everywhere. They received a flood of entries.
The winner is the former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, for his limerick ‘There was a young man from Ankara’ which, like Böhmermann’s poem, alludes to sex and bestiality.
The public and press are clearly less prudish in Britain than in Malta. Here, a crude, off-the-cuff Twitter comment about Joseph Muscat has whipped up an outrage.
“If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish President and a goat, he should be able to do so, in any European country, including Turkey,” said Johnson, who is campaigning for Brexit as a Tory MP.
The EU deal with Turkey has reached an impasse. The EU wants Turkey to strike anti-terror laws off its books, which are being used to crush human rights and stifle dissent. Turkey disagrees, claiming that these laws are needed to fight ISIS and Kurdish rebels.
We certainly cannot equate Malta with Turkey, however it is important to pick up negative signals and be alert
Good relations between the EU and Turkey are, of course, crucial. There are, however, a significant number of journalists, writers and other dissenters jailed in Turkey, and there is a limit to how far Europe can ignore this. Journalists in Turkey are regularly detained or intimidated.
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk once wrote that his friends sometimes suggested he should word his sentences differently, less offensively, to stay out of trouble.
Pamuk responded that, to package words “in a way that will be acceptable to everyone, and to become skilled in this arena, is a bit like smuggling contraband through customs, and much the same way, even when successfully accomplished, it produces a feeling of shame and degradation.”
A recent editorial in the UK Guardian noted that in Turkey, “publications and broadcasting organisations have been put under extreme pressure to sack columnists whom the government dislikes. Some have been bought out by businessmen close to the government”.
This sounds alarmingly familiar. We certainly cannot equate Malta with Turkey, however it is important to pick up negative signals and be alert.
An aide of Muscat is regularly calling for the sacking of certain columnists who are critical of the government. In his blog he also targets journalists in the independent newspapers who write hard-hitting stories.
In direct response to an unwelcome report in this newspaper on the Eurovision budget, he retaliated by probing the cost of Times Talk on PBS. This stance is very serious, as it comes from within the Office of the Prime Minister.
Writing in the Guardian last week, historian and political writer Timothy Garton Ash described a wave of anti-liberal sentiment in various countries, including China, Egypt, Turkey and even Poland. For him, the answer is: “Pay attention. Shout loudly. Make sure free speech is secured.” Do not shut up.
Ash expressed concerns about the editorial independence of the BBC. This may seem incredible, compared to our situation. Here, broadcasting is dominated by two political parties and a public broadcaster whose independence is highly questionable.
A major vote of no confidence in Minister Konrad Mizzi, related to the Panama Papers and of huge national significance, was recently debated in Parliament. The main current affairs programme of our national station chose that very moment to focus on a wannabe scandal linked to a deputy leader of the Opposition party.
It is, of course, absolutely fine for Dissett to discuss this topic, but there is a time and place for everything, as should be obvious.
Spectator editor Douglas Murray explained that Johnson’s limerick was selected as the competition winner not because it was the best poem, but partly because of Johnson’s position. “I think it a wonderful thing,” said Murray, “that a British political leader has shown that Britain will not bow before the putative caliph in Ankara”.
He suggested that a good response to a rude poem is to write an even ruder one back, so at this point Erdogan should be thinking of words rhyming with ‘Johnson’. Do any exist in Turkish?
The extent of the diplomatic flurry that will surely ensue from this unusual exchange of poetic insults remains to be seen.
petracdingli@gmail.com