Ardahan – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Saturday stepped up his attacks on foreign media a day ahead of legislative
elections, telling the Guardian to “know your limits” and lamenting
that “Jewish capital” was behind the New York Times.
Erdogan
has during the campaign leading up to Sunday’s polls repeatedly criticized
foreign media, amid growing concerns over an erosion of freedom of expression
in Turkey under his rule.
In
one of its final pre-election rallies in the eastern province of Ardahan,
Erdogan took offense at an article in the Guardian critical of his rule,
including an editorial titled “Growing autocracy threatens a crucial
country.”
“Do
you know what a British newspaper says about this election?” Erdogan told
the crowd. “It says the not fully-westernized, poor Muslims are not being
allowed to manage their own country!”
“Who
are you? You are impertinent!” he told the paper. “Know your limits.
Since when were you given such authority?”
Erdogan
also launched a new attack on the New York Times, which has written there are
“dark clouds” over Turkey under his rule.
He
said the newspaper had been campaigning against Turkey’s leaders going back to
Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, who ruled the Ottoman Empire during the final
phase of its decline.
“Now, they are spitting out the same
hatred on me… It’s clear who their patrons are,” he fired. “There
is Jewish capital behind it, unfortunately.”
