Pope Francis in Turkey

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December 1, 2014, 11 AM ET

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{Originally posted on author's website, FirstOneThrough} The news agencies reported on Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey in November 2014. Remarkably, the major media outlets such as CNN, BBC, and The New York Times did not report on the extreme hardened Islamic moves that have taken place in Turkey over the past several years, nor other abuses:

No mention of the Turkish persecution of the Kurdish minorities
No mention of Turkey’s illegal invasion and ongoing occupation of northern Cyprus
No mention of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians
No mention of rightward shift of Turkish government:
- Banning kissing in public
- Banning Youtube
- Banning Twitter
- Jailing the most journalists in the world in 2012 and 2013
- Banning drinking at night

The closest any major news organization came to criticizing Turkey was the Guardian, which quickly backed off with a quote ““Things are good now, better than before certainly,” Atmaca said. “I think the Islamist rhetoric [of the government] is mostly show.”” By way of comparison, when the Pope visited Israel in May 2014, the New York Times did nothing to describe the positive environment of Christians in Israel, and constantly sought to portray every move of Pope Francis as critical of Israel in the Arab-Israel conflict (as described in the FirstOneThrough articles below.) Absent from their narrative, was that Israel is a thriving country with more freedoms of press and worship than any country in the Middle East. The country is much more than the conflict with the Palestinians, just as Turkey is more than its conflict in Cyprus or with the Kurds. Here is a FirstOneThrough video analysis of an interview of Recep Erdogan from September 11, 2011, then the Prime Minister and now the President of Turkey. Like the liberal media outlets, the attacks on Israel are persistent, and the hypocrisy is without limits. FirstOneThrough video “Turkish hypocrisy: Erdogan threatens Neighbors”:

Sources: CNN coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/28/world/europe/turkey-pope-visit/ BBC coverage: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30239233 New York Times coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/world/europe/pope-brings-message-of-interreligious-peace-to-istanbul.html?_r=0 FirstOneThrough comparing NY Times coverage of Turkish and Israeli elections: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/new-york-times-talking-turkey/ FirstOneThrough on Pope in Israel: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/nytimes-shows-its-preference-in-dueling-narratives-in-the-middle-east/ FirstOneThrough on NY Times Pope’s “Peace prayer” invitation: https://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/ny-times-skewed-view-on-pope-prayer-invitation-and-mideast-peace/