„Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing Third-Worldish authoritarianism is taking new turns: it is now visible outside Turkey. … Meanwhile, Turkish paranoia around insane claims that the entire world has joined hands to conspire against Turkey’s supreme leader appeared once again. Senior government officials have been slamming Twitter, and claiming it ‚censored‘ a hashtag created for Erdogan by removing #WeLoveErdogan from its top trending tweets. …
Then came the Turkish circus in Washington. On March 31, Erdogan was scheduled to speak at the Brookings Institution. His security guards harassed and physically assaulted journalists trying to cover the event; they also forcibly attempted to remove several journalists, although they were on the guest list. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Brookings staff prevented them from ejecting the reporters.“ (Der türkische Journalist Burak Bekdil auf der Website des US-amerikanischen Middle East Forum: „Turkey’s Circus in Washington“)