A journalist in Turkey was sent back to Azerbaijan on Feb. 7 for tweets that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan felt crossed the line of government criticism.
Just over a month ago, Erdoğan filed a criminal complaint against Mahir Zeynalov because his Twitter feed was full of blistering blurbs that slammed Erdoğan for a corruption scandal that has consumed his government, caused three members of his cabinet to resign and consumed headlines across the nation.
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Erdoğan is destroying the Turkish democracy he built http://t.co/D3vJpyW7Eq #YalanRüzgarı
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) December 30, 2013
 
As part of Turkey's drive toward a healthy democracy, police detain woman for holding up shoebox to protest Erdoğan http://t.co/UH0EfC9Gya
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) December 30, 2013
 
Several times every day, Erdoğan threatens prosecutor supervising graft probe: Hang on, we're not done with you yet http://t.co/CFjx0cNkye
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) December 29, 2013
 
How Erdogan is covering up the corruption scandal http://t.co/m1LwlvWMn2#CrackdownOnJudiciaryInTurkey
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) December 26, 2013
However, Erdoğan's complaint didn't stop Zeynalov's slew of critical tweets. The journalist, who works for Turkish news website Today's Zaman, continued to pepper his feed with thoughts on the corruption scandal, which began last year after evidence surfaced that government officials had taken part in illegal deals with Turkish businessmen.
Turkey's strong leader rapidly losing power and credibility, blaming all except himself http://t.co/Vl2yEhhXQS
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) February 1, 2014
Erdogan was already on his way to consolidate power; the graft scandal only made him rush http://t.co/klkWuACdZ5
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) January 22, 2014
Turkish gov't repeatedly reassigns critical bureaucrats so that they have no chance but quit job http://t.co/bKRxrDmYUQ
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) January 20, 2014
Many officials are now being prosecuted, but Erdoğan's government has disrupted the trials by accusing prosecutors of involvement in the Gulen movement, a religious operation that Turkish officials claim is trying to take over the country. Today's Zaman is affiliated with the Gulen movement.
Zeynalov now finds himself on a list of foreign nationals barred from entering Turkey. When he heard news of the decision, he and his wife decided to head to the airport on their own, paying a fine because they did not wait for Turkish officials to escort them out of their home.
Today's Zaman journalist @MahirZeynalov is being escorted by Turkish police for deportation. pic.twitter.com/jqFant2UzA
— Sevda Nur Arslan (@svdarslan) February 7, 2014
This may be the first time a foreign journalist has been deported from Turkey since 1995, and the move has drawn harsh criticism from within the country as well as the international community.
The deputy chairman for the Republican People's Party, Turkey's main opposition party, raised a question to Erdoğan in parliament following the incident. Sezgin Tanrıkulu asked whether the prime minister intended to deport all journalists who tweeted things he didn't like, and also questioned how many journalists he had already filed a criminal complaint against and whether or not Erdoğan considered the deportation a violation of free expression. Erdoğan has not responded to any of there inquiries.
A spokesperson from the United States State Department also said America was troubled by the deportation and was looking into the matter.
Zeynalov's ousting marks new territory in Turkey's assault on freedom of speech, but the incident is just the latest in a string of attacks by Erdoğan's government that have worried advocates of press freedom. Those attacks have a chance to continue for years to come if Erdoğan remains in some sort of power; while the prime minister cannot run for another term, many believe he will run for president instead. Elections are coming up in August of this year.
In December, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Turkey had jailed 40 reporters in 2013, a higher number than any other nation that year.
Plenty who have not been jailed have been censored. The Turkish Telecommunication Presidency, a branch of the government, has blocked some 30,000 websites, according to the New York Times. Many of those sites belong to journalists such as Mehmet Baransu, who used his website Yenidonem.com to report on the scandal until it was blocked just two days after going live. Serdar Akinan's VagusTV, a news blog, was also temporarily blocked after it published four articles detailing content from tapped telephone conversations with the prime minister's son, Burak Erdoğan.
Erdoğan's government has also rushed legislation that would give Turkish officials more wide-ranging ability to monitor Internet use and regulate which websites those users can visit. The proposed tighter controls have reportedly come following further evidence of corruption in Erdoğan's government, which surfaced on websites such as SoundCloud, and will become law in two weeks — unless the motion is vetoed by Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
Despite outcry from its citizens, Turkey continues to ramp up levels of Internet censorship. Many have taken to Twitter with hashtags such as #internetimedokunma and #sansuredurde, which translate as "HandsOffMyInternet" and "SayNoToCensorship," respectively, according to the Times.
Turkey first provoked ire across the globe for its Internet restrictions after it imposed a three-year ban on YouTube that began in 2007, when Erdoğan was first starting his second term as prime minister.
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