Burak Bekdil, a journalist who once wrote for a leading Turkish newspaper, recounts being harassed and hounded from his job after writing an article critical of Hamas:
[I]n the summer of 2014, . . . friends told me that my picture was on the front page of [Turkey’s] most militant Islamist newspaper, Yeni Akit—whose editors always find a seat aboard Erdogan’s private jet during his state visits abroad.
I was accused of undermining Turkey’s defense industry and promoting the Israeli weapons lobby. But my greatest sin was to argue: “The fact that there are no Israeli casualties [in the Gaza war thus far] does not mean Hamas does not want to kill; it just means Hamas, for the moment, cannot kill.” . . . [Shortly thereafter] a pro-government columnist, in [a] tweet, called me “the disgrace of humanity,” several others joined in a lynching campaign on social media. . . .
The campaign annoyed my editors and boss, but I was kept writing provided that I would not write on “explosive” subjects. . . . After a few attempts I stopped writing about the Arab-Israeli conflict [for Turkish publications]. . . . But things went from bad to worse in Turkey. . . . The increasingly difficult rules meant that my column could not contain any of the words “Jew, Israel, Israeli, Hamas, Hamas and terror, and Palestine.”
The last straw for Bekdil came in December, when he criticized President Erdogan and his editors, under direct pressure from the regime, fired him.
Read more on Jewish Chronicle: https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/i-criticised-hamas-and-my-life-in-turkey-became-a-nightmare-1.435455