THE Twitter issue has taken Turkey by storm, widened the fissures in the ruling party and perhaps made Recep Tayyip Erdogan realise that the ban on the social media site in no way helps him in the issue involved —– corruption. The extent of the Turkish prime minister’s overreaction to charges of corruption in his government is astonishing. He alleges that the social media site is being misused, says he will prove how strong the Turkish state is and promises to “wipe out” Twitter. None of this fits with a third-time democratically elected chief executive of a country keen to join the European Union. The ban on Twitter — violated by his own president — isn’t the only display of anger on his part. It comes in the wake of several other repressive measures: the excessive use of force against the Taksim Square protesters, the closure of schools run by his one-time mentor and now critic Fetullah Gulen, a law that tightens the executive’s grip on the judiciary, a bill now in parliament for giving more powers to the intelligence agency for eavesdropping, and the restrictions on the internet and YouTube. All this comes at a time when Turkey has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of journalists in prison. As statistics show, of the 211 journalists in prison worldwide at the end of last year, Turkey tops the list with 40 mediapersons imprisoned.

That President Abdullah Gul and the deputy prime minister should violate the Twitter ban shows not only the unpopularity of the move but also a rift within the AKP — which otherwise has many achievements to its credit, including a booming economy. By not drawing strength from these achievements, Mr Erdogan is showing a surprising degree of impetuosity, thus adding to his problems. Instead of flaunting the ‘deep state’, Mr Erdogan should take back some of these measures, punish the corrupt and thus present himself and his party in a better light for the March 30 municipal polls.