A Monday night interview between PBS’s Amanpour and Company guest host Bianna Golodryga and Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran about the protests going on in her native country surrounding the arrest of the leader of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main opposition took a sharp detour as Temelkuran compared Erdogan to President Donald Trump. She went so far as to claim both anti-Erdogan and anti-Trump protestors are pushing back against the same global “rise of fascism.”
Golodryga asked, “And in the last 20 years, I mean, now you have a system where 90 percent of the media is government controlled. I know you and many others have compared this to the Gezi Park Protest movement in 2013. Can you talk about the similarities here and what, if any, lessons have been learned that organizers of this movement can take with them?”
Whatever one thinks of Trump’s legal issues, it is a fact of life that the previous administration arrested him for two different cases. Trump, so far, has not arrested anyone from the Biden Administration. Nevertheless, Temelkuran declared, “Bianna, the main difference is that this time people went onto the streets knowing the risks. There was a protest ban already. So, they went onto the streets against the ban. They knew that they were going to meet with massive police violence, which happened. And the other difference is, of course, this is another world now in 2013, there was more democracy in the world and there wasn't Trump in America or several other leaders, similar leaders in Europe. So, the world was watching Turkey in a favorable way during the 2013 Gezi uprisings.”
Temelkuran also mourned that, “This time, Turkey is different. There's a lot of oppression, much more oppression than 2013. And the world is different. It is more silent when it comes to masses demanding democracy. That is a very, very dark and unfortunate silence of course.”
Later in their interview, Golodryga asked Temelkuran what she thought of the protests against Trump in this country. Seeing an opportunity to promote her book, Temelkuran declared, “So, I think when, you know, Trump policies are touching them every day, they are coming to their senses and they are realizing that as citizens, they're political subjects. I am longing for these protests because -- this is why I wrote How to Lose a Country. It wasn't only to, you know, tell what's going to come to United States, but it was also to show the common patterns, so that by knowing these common patterns, we can build a global solidarity. And I see demonstrations in United States as part of a global wave that is in Serbia, in Turkey, in several other places as well, against the rise of fascism.”
She added, “So, I am not optimistic. I don't believe in this optimism, pessimism thing, but I do think that this kind of demonstrations are refreshing our faith in ourselves, in other humans in terms of protecting our dignity when it's under attack.”
Golodryga had previously noted that the Turkish government controls 90 percent of the media. That is another not-so-subtle difference between Trump and Erdogan. Erdogan controls the media; Trump wants to taxpayer money to stop subsidizing PBS’s re-airing of CNN International’s Amanpour.
Sign the petition to help us defund another MSNBC in PBS and NPR at defundpbsnpr.org.
Here is a transcript for the April 7-taped show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
4/7/2025
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: And in the last 20 years, I mean, now you have a system where 90 percent of the media is government controlled. I know you and many others have compared this to the Gezi Park Protest movement in 2013. Can you talk about the similarities here and what, if any, lessons have been learned that organizers of this movement can take with them?
ECE TEMELKURAN: Bianna, the main difference is that this time people went onto the streets knowing the risks. There was a protest ban already. So, they went onto the streets against the ban. They knew that they were going to meet with massive police violence, which happened. And the other difference is, of course, this is another world now in 2013, there was more democracy in the world and there wasn't Trump in America or several other leaders, similar leaders in Europe. So, the world was watching Turkey in a favorable way during the 2013 Gezi uprisings.
This time, Turkey is different. There's a lot of oppression, much more oppression than 2013. And the world is different. It is more silent when it comes to masses demanding democracy. That is a very, very dark and unfortunate silence of course.
…
TEMELKURAN: Yeah. Well, it's a good thing, because America is not as political as Turkey, has never been. Citizens are afraid of politics and also, they -- it's somehow honorable to say -- think to say that I am apolitical. I don't -- I hate politics and so on. I think United States, American citizens are finally realizing that being apolitical is not an option or saying that I hate politics is only bad politics. It is politics though.
So, I think when, you know, Trump policies are touching them every day, they are coming to their senses and they are realizing that as citizens, they're political subjects. I am longing for these protests because -- this is why I wrote How to Lose a Country. It wasn't only to, you know, tell what's going to come to United States, but it was also to show the common patterns, so that by knowing these common patterns, we can build a global solidarity. And I see demonstrations in United States as part of a global wave that is in Serbia, in Turkey, in several other places as well, against the rise of fascism.
So, I am not optimistic. I don't believe in this optimism, pessimism thing, but I do think that this kind of demonstrations are refreshing our faith in ourselves, in other humans in terms of protecting our dignity when it's under attack.
