Erdoğan continues assaults on Doğan

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"Mr. Doğan, behave yourself. This prime minister is not one who thinks small. This is a prime minister who befits Turkey’s dignity and whose ideal is to make Turkey think big," said Erdoğan in response to Doğan’s recent interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"Your habits were different. You are disturbed because your habits changed. Because you used to control governments from Babıali and from İkitelli," said Erdoğan, addressing Doğan and newspapers located in Babıali and İkitelli districts in Istanbul.

If Doğan did nothing to wrong, "Why are you disturbed by a routine examination from one of the state’s departments, the Finance Ministry?" asked Erdoğan. He said Doğan Holding "made the same mistake before" and came to an agreement without going to court. He recalled that Doğan Holding paid over 200 million Turkish Liras in the previous agreement.

Erdoğan said he had asked Doğan not to publish "false news" about his family. He said he told his party and supporters to boycott any newspapers that write false news. "Because journalism requires truth."

Advocate

Erdoğan said Deniz Baykal, the leader of main opposition party, is behaving like an advocate of the Doğan Media Group and the DMG is working like a subcontractor for Baykal. He recalled Baykal said that he is an advocate of the Ergenekon suspects.

"We said we will fight with the gangs and mafia in Turkey and thank God we are fighting them," he said. Erdoğan compared the opposition to the genie in Aladdin’s lamp. "They are like a genie that escapes the lamp. They make up baseless promises to get out of the ballot box you locked them in," he said.