Turkish Consul General Can Oguz defended Turkey’s relationship with the press and its standing on the global stage to a small audience of students and faculty on Nov. 19.
Oguz, who has served as Turkey’s Consul General to Los Angeles since Dec. 2017, said he was speaking in an official capacity at USC in order to share Turkey’s “perspective” on its recent insurgence into northeastern Syria. Oguz argued that Turkey’s “point of view” has not been accurately conveyed in American media.
Turkey has long been embroiled in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish political organization within the country that has been declared a terrorist organization by Turkey and the US.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG), an offshoot on PKK, has controlled northeastern Syria for six years and was an important ally to the United States in expelling ISIS from the region.
YPG’s perceived threat to Turkey and President Donald Trump’s Oct. 13 order to withdraw American troops from Syria prompted a Turkish offensive against the YPG in the days immediately following Trump’s announcement, allowing Turkey to claim land in Syria in an onslaught known as Operation Peace Spring.
Oguz argued emphatically that media across the world and in America, in particular, has negatively conveyed Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring since Trump’s withdrawal from Syria.
The alliance between the United States and YPG was characterized by Oguz as “transactional” and that America had been working with a “designated terrorist organization.” Oguz then contended that Operation Peace Spring was not an “opportunistic” decision, but rather the third in a series of planned offenses against terrorism. According to Oguz, media has created an “echo chamber” by reporting about Operation Peace Spring without “verifying” the information.
Oguz’s assertions about “Western media” coverage of Operation Peace Spring were met with skepticism from the audience. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkey jailed more journalists than any other country in 2018 and has among the worst press freedom indexes in the world. Further, the Columbia Journalism Review reports that about a third of Turkish media is owned by a family directly connected to Turkish President Erdogan.
“Of course it is not perfect and that is because the reporters don’t always have an impartial view,” Oguz said of Turkey’s relationship with the press.
He argued it is not a “wholesale campaign against everyone” but rather a consequence of journalists providing “material support” to terrorist organizations. Oguz’s defense could be perceived as an admission that Turkey seeks to limit the flow of information that the government does not like.
Though Oguz defended Operation Peace Spring as a necessary step in Turkey’s fight against terrorism, there have already been dubious global impacts. Without the allied support of the United States, YPG has aligned with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad in order to resist the Turkish offensive. Assad’s government is closely affiliated with Iran and Russia.
Additionally, the YPG’s lack of American reinforcements has allowed Turkey to take control of Kurdish-run prisons detaining captured ISIS fighters and their families. Turkey threatened to deport the ISIS detainees back to Europe and the United States, raising questions about the repatriation of the detainees and the potential implications for the Islamic State, which had been on its last legs in the region.
Oguz concluded by calling upon media, as a whole, to present Turkey’s perspective in a more fair and balanced manner.