Angela Merkel’s Sultanic Bargain
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan doesn’t have a sense of humor. Nor, to judge by her decision to allow a comedian’s prosecution, does the German chancellor.
By James Kirchick
Politico EU
April 18, 2016
As if to confirm the stereotype that Germans lack a sense of humor, Chancellor Angela Merkel last week allowed a legal case to proceed against a comedian accused of “insulting” the president of Turkey.
On March 31st, satirist Jan Böhmermann read a poem on state television broadcaster ZDF accusing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of “repressing minorities, kicking Kurds and slapping Christians.” This was one of the few printable lines in an otherwise scatological riff, which, among other crude puns, involved a quip about Erdogan’s manhood rhyming with “doner.”
Hypersensitive bully that he is, Erdoğan invoked an obscure and rarely utilized section of the Prussian-era German penal code prohibiting offense against the “dignity” of foreign leaders. By pressuring Merkel to enact the obsolete dictates of lèse-majesté, Erdoğan joins a rogues gallery alongside the late Shah of Iran and Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, both of whom inveighed previous German governments to punish their critics.
Erdoğan’s cynical exploitation of German law was but the latest in a series of attempts to interfere in that country’s domestic politics. In February, the Turkish foreign ministry in Ankara summoned the German ambassador, Martin Erdmann, for a dressing down over an educational handout distributed to teachers in the state of Saxony-Anhalt addressing the Armenian genocide, which Turkey denies. The following month, Erdmann was again reprimanded over a video satire aired on German television poking fun at Erdoğan as “the Boss from the Bosphorus.” When Turkish officials insisted that the video be removed from the internet, Erdmann reportedly showed them unflattering caricatures of Merkel printed in the German media so as to demonstrate how withstanding criticism — sometimes even juvenile lampooning — is the cost of doing business for leaders in free societies.
Like the character of German legend who made a pact with the devil, Merkel’s shameful decision comes as the result of a corrupt bargain with her Turkish counterpart. Earlier this year, in exchange for Ankara’s stanching the flow of migrants into Europe, the European Union agreed to fork over up to €6 billion in aid, as well as accelerate the Mediterranean country’s visa waiver process and membership application to the 28-nation bloc. That was far more than the Turks deserved for doing what they ought to have been doing anyway: stopping illegal immigration. Demanding the head of a German comedian is Erdoğan’s way of sticking an embittered finger in the eye of Europe, which he sees as disrespecting his Sultanate.
"Increasingly dependent upon illiberal regimes for its economic health and security, the West is increasingly willing to sacrifice core values."
By deferring to the judiciary on the question of whether to prosecute Böhmermann, (who could potentially face up to three years in prison) Merkel can, at best, be defended on grounds of adhering to a particular German pedantry. “Not the government, but courts and the legal system will have the final word,” she said.
But this rationalization is far too charitable to the chancellor. Merkel could have struck a blow for freedom of expression by nipping the legal process in the bud, simultaneously sending a signal to Erdoğan and the rest of Europe that the continent will not compromise its values on the whims of a dictator whose government recently seized control of the country’s leading opposition newspaper and has lodged some 2,000 legal cases against its own citizens for insulting the president. Erdoğan will now be able to use this foreign policy victory for domestic political purposes, demonstrating to his people — and, in particular, his battered and beleaguered opposition — the extent of his growing power.
* * *
Last month, Washingtonians got a taste of Erdogan’s authoritarianism when his security detail roughed up reporters and protestors outside a think tank where he was due to deliver a speech. For about an hour on March 31st (the same day Böhmermann read his poem), the normally staid confines of Massachusetts Avenue, a long stretch of which houses some of D.C.’s most respectable research institutions from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, resembled the rough and tumble of Gezi Park as Turkish security agents tussled with demonstrators outside the Brookings Institution.
It was later revealed that Brookings threatened to cancel Erdoğan’s speech due to the thuggish behavior of his entourage, whose violence elicited condemnation from journalists and think tank denizens alike. While German civil society has performed admirably in l’affaire Böhmermann, support for the comedian has hardly been universal, beginning with his own network. Without any prompting from the German government, ZDF removed the video of Böhmermann’s riff from its website, and Berlin police banned a demonstration outside the Turkish embassy. The usually verbose Böhmermann, like many another critic or satirist of Islamist cry bullies, has not been heard from for weeks and is living under police protection with his family.
* * *
A neo-Ottoman autocrat’s temper tantrum concerns far more than the livelihood of this single German comedian. Indeed, the scandal demonstrates a negative, unintended consequence of globalization. As we have come to learn in recent years, it’s not only things we want — like goods, services, and fresh ideas — that can now traverse increasingly irrelevant national borders, but also things we don’t want — like refugee flows and, alarmingly, the censoriousness of foreign despotisms. Because it is increasingly dependent upon illiberal regimes for its economic health and security, the West in general, and Europe in particular, is increasingly willing to sacrifice core values. Whether it’s the Italian government covering up the Capitoline Museum’s naked statues so as not to offend the visiting president of Iran, or newspapers refusing to publish images of Mohammed, Europeans are surrendering their freedoms little by little. If this dishonorable sufferance on behalf of religious obscurantists continues, we will not have much freedom left.
"Merkel could have struck a blow for freedom of expression by nipping the legal process in the bud."
Merkel is hardly alone in deserving blame for this sorry situation; her supplication before Erdogan is the consequence of a broader continental fecklessness. The refugee crisis that has left Europe at the mercy of Turkey is the direct result of its lack of resolve in Syria. Western indecisiveness — refusing to fight for its interests in the Levant with force — cleared the field for a Russian military intervention that exacerbated refugee flows. In this sense, a German comedian’s virtual house arrest proves the need for a robust, united European foreign policy that stands up for its values abroad so that it doesn’t have to sacrifice them at home.
Jan Böhmermann humorously challenged the staid orthodoxies of his consensus-obsessed countrymen and for that, he is paying the price for Western apathy. But his fate is no laughing matter.
As if to confirm the stereotype that Germans lack a sense of humor, Chancellor Angela Merkel last week allowed a legal case to proceed against a comedian accused of “insulting” the president of Turkey.
On March 31st, satirist Jan Böhmermann read a poem on state television broadcaster ZDF accusing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of “repressing minorities, kicking Kurds and slapping Christians.” This was one of the few printable lines in an otherwise scatological riff, which, among other crude puns, involved a quip about Erdogan’s manhood rhyming with “doner.”
Hypersensitive bully that he is, Erdoğan invoked an obscure and rarely utilized section of the Prussian-era German penal code prohibiting offense against the “dignity” of foreign leaders. By pressuring Merkel to enact the obsolete dictates of lèse-majesté, Erdoğan joins a rogues gallery alongside the late Shah of Iran and Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, both of whom inveighed previous German governments to punish their critics.
Erdoğan’s cynical exploitation of German law was but the latest in a series of attempts to interfere in that country’s domestic politics. In February, the Turkish foreign ministry in Ankara summoned the German ambassador, Martin Erdmann, for a dressing down over an educational handout distributed to teachers in the state of Saxony-Anhalt addressing the Armenian genocide, which Turkey denies. The following month, Erdmann was again reprimanded over a video satire aired on German television poking fun at Erdoğan as “the Boss from the Bosphorus.” When Turkish officials insisted that the video be removed from the internet, Erdmann reportedly showed them unflattering caricatures of Merkel printed in the German media so as to demonstrate how withstanding criticism — sometimes even juvenile lampooning — is the cost of doing business for leaders in free societies.
Like the character of German legend who made a pact with the devil, Merkel’s shameful decision comes as the result of a corrupt bargain with her Turkish counterpart. Earlier this year, in exchange for Ankara’s stanching the flow of migrants into Europe, the European Union agreed to fork over up to €6 billion in aid, as well as accelerate the Mediterranean country’s visa waiver process and membership application to the 28-nation bloc. That was far more than the Turks deserved for doing what they ought to have been doing anyway: stopping illegal immigration. Demanding the head of a German comedian is Erdoğan’s way of sticking an embittered finger in the eye of Europe, which he sees as disrespecting his Sultanate.
"Increasingly dependent upon illiberal regimes for its economic health and security, the West is increasingly willing to sacrifice core values."
By deferring to the judiciary on the question of whether to prosecute Böhmermann, (who could potentially face up to three years in prison) Merkel can, at best, be defended on grounds of adhering to a particular German pedantry. “Not the government, but courts and the legal system will have the final word,” she said.
But this rationalization is far too charitable to the chancellor. Merkel could have struck a blow for freedom of expression by nipping the legal process in the bud, simultaneously sending a signal to Erdoğan and the rest of Europe that the continent will not compromise its values on the whims of a dictator whose government recently seized control of the country’s leading opposition newspaper and has lodged some 2,000 legal cases against its own citizens for insulting the president. Erdoğan will now be able to use this foreign policy victory for domestic political purposes, demonstrating to his people — and, in particular, his battered and beleaguered opposition — the extent of his growing power.
* * *
Last month, Washingtonians got a taste of Erdogan’s authoritarianism when his security detail roughed up reporters and protestors outside a think tank where he was due to deliver a speech. For about an hour on March 31st (the same day Böhmermann read his poem), the normally staid confines of Massachusetts Avenue, a long stretch of which houses some of D.C.’s most respectable research institutions from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, resembled the rough and tumble of Gezi Park as Turkish security agents tussled with demonstrators outside the Brookings Institution.
It was later revealed that Brookings threatened to cancel Erdoğan’s speech due to the thuggish behavior of his entourage, whose violence elicited condemnation from journalists and think tank denizens alike. While German civil society has performed admirably in l’affaire Böhmermann, support for the comedian has hardly been universal, beginning with his own network. Without any prompting from the German government, ZDF removed the video of Böhmermann’s riff from its website, and Berlin police banned a demonstration outside the Turkish embassy. The usually verbose Böhmermann, like many another critic or satirist of Islamist cry bullies, has not been heard from for weeks and is living under police protection with his family.
* * *
A neo-Ottoman autocrat’s temper tantrum concerns far more than the livelihood of this single German comedian. Indeed, the scandal demonstrates a negative, unintended consequence of globalization. As we have come to learn in recent years, it’s not only things we want — like goods, services, and fresh ideas — that can now traverse increasingly irrelevant national borders, but also things we don’t want — like refugee flows and, alarmingly, the censoriousness of foreign despotisms. Because it is increasingly dependent upon illiberal regimes for its economic health and security, the West in general, and Europe in particular, is increasingly willing to sacrifice core values. Whether it’s the Italian government covering up the Capitoline Museum’s naked statues so as not to offend the visiting president of Iran, or newspapers refusing to publish images of Mohammed, Europeans are surrendering their freedoms little by little. If this dishonorable sufferance on behalf of religious obscurantists continues, we will not have much freedom left.
"Merkel could have struck a blow for freedom of expression by nipping the legal process in the bud."
Merkel is hardly alone in deserving blame for this sorry situation; her supplication before Erdogan is the consequence of a broader continental fecklessness. The refugee crisis that has left Europe at the mercy of Turkey is the direct result of its lack of resolve in Syria. Western indecisiveness — refusing to fight for its interests in the Levant with force — cleared the field for a Russian military intervention that exacerbated refugee flows. In this sense, a German comedian’s virtual house arrest proves the need for a robust, united European foreign policy that stands up for its values abroad so that it doesn’t have to sacrifice them at home.
Jan Böhmermann humorously challenged the staid orthodoxies of his consensus-obsessed countrymen and for that, he is paying the price for Western apathy. But his fate is no laughing matter.
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