FOR years, when I wanted to follow current events in Turkey, I went to the Today Zaman website. This is the English-language sister publication of Zaman, the country’s most popular daily that was recently seized by the government. It is now being published by a government-appointed panel, and toes the party line. When I tried to access Zaman Today online, I got an error message 521: the web server is down.

The Zaman takeover is only the latest move by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to control Turkey’s feisty opposition media. In a steadily escalating campaign, business groups owning critical TV channels have been targeted, reporters and editors have been jailed, and a climate of fear has been created in newsrooms across the country.

In the Zaman takeover, tear gas and water cannons were freely used to disperse supporters of the newspaper who demonstrated outside its offices in a show of solidarity. The reason given for this reckless action was that Zaman was allegedly linked to Fethullah Gulen, the charismatic figure who promotes a progressive vision of Islam, and is based in the US. Until recently, he was an Erdogan ally, but there was a bitter falling out in 2013. Since then, the president has carried out a witch-hunt against the thousands of Gulen supporters in the ranks of the government. Business groups with ties to the reformer have also been targeted: on the day Zaman was taken over, directors of Boydak Holding, one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates, were arrested.

The latest in this campaign of terrorising the media was Erdogan’s scarcely veiled threat to the Constitutional Court, one of the few organs of the state not under his full control. This court had ordered the release of Can Dundar, editor-in-chief, and Erdem Gul, Ankara bureau chief of Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s oldest newspaper. The two journalists had been jailed for running a story alleging that the Turkish intelligence was arming Islamic extremist groups in Syria. After the court ruled that their “rights to personal liberty and security had been violated”, thus leading to their release, Erdogan said: “I hope the Constitutional Court will not repeat this in a way that calls into question its existence and its legitimacy.”

These harsh measures come against a backdrop of a deepening refugee crisis in Europe. Most of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian asylum-seekers have been crossing into Greece through Turkey as they make their way to the promised lands of Germany, Norway and Sweden. For months, the EU has been pressing Turkey to prevent this flood, and now it seems a deal has been struck.

The agreement calls for Turkey to take back Syrian refugees who have crossed into Greece, and for each one, the EU will accept one refugee from Turkish camps. This forcible return may well violate international law, but so desperate is Angela Merkel to reduce the flow that she has accepted other controversial provisions of the Turkish plan as well. These include the payment of six billion euros to Turkey, and visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in the Schengen area for up to three months. A fast-track entry into the EU is also on the table.

Several EU members have voiced their concerns with all this largesse being showered upon Turkey when it is flouting human rights and cracking down on the media. Some critics have said that Erdogan is turning the flow of asylum-seekers on and off to suit his own purpose as he would a water tap.

Clearly, the shrewd Turkish leader has read the desperation in the EU and seized his opportunity to cash in. Already there has been significant resistance to the idea of allowing Turks into Europe without visas, even though technically, they won’t be allowed to work. However, the task of monitoring thousands of young people travelling across Europe will be a difficult one for governments already stretched by the presence of thousands of legal and illegal immigrants.

For Turks, the increasingly authoritarian tone and actions of their president is a cause for alarm. Erdogan’s ambition was — and remains — getting a two-thirds parliamentary majority that would allow him to secure an executive presidency.

Also, it appears that the government is seeking to unseat the pro-Kurdish HDP MPs by accusing them of supporting the outlawed separatist group, the PKK. Already, there is a full-fledged military campaign against Kurdish militants in eastern Turkey, with round-the-clock curfews and daily clashes.

Beset by internal problems, fighting has now engulfed its borders. Throwing its support behind Islamist extremists in its bid to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Turkey is now also shelling the Syrian YPG, the Kurdish group said to be the most effective fighters against the militant Islamic State group. This has caused the United States to oppose this as it threatens to weaken the anti-IS alliance.

Simultaneously, the Turks have angered Russia by shooting down one of its bombers because it had strayed into Turkish airspace for a few seconds. Russia has retaliated by banning imports from Turkey and preventing its citizens to visit the country. Since Turkey was a very popular tourist destination for Russians, this has been a heavy blow to the Turkish economy.

When the AK Party first came to power 14 years ago, its foreign minister, and now prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu coined the phrase “zero problem with neighbours”. Now this policy lies in tatters, largely because of the impulsive behaviour of the president. But despite the many problems the country faces, Erdogan seems to be hell-bent on confrontation instead of trying to forge a consensus.

irfan.husain@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2016