All so predictable.

Ahead of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to Ankara last week came a call from Human Rights Watch (HRW) – do not ignore Turkey’s assaults on rights and democracy during your time in the country.

The expected turn of the wheel-of-advice followed an intensification of the Erdogan administration’s attacks on the Turkish opposition and proposing of an anti-LGBT law. The times being what they are, HRW could not have anticipated winning too many column inches in the world media with their statement. They were right on that score.

Date at Erdogan’s palace came hot on heels of Starmer appearance

“On the heels of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to sign a deal for Turkey to acquire fighter jets, on October 30 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will beat his own path to the presidential palace,” Philipp Frisch, the country director for Germany at HRW, wrote.

The British government never broaches non-business issues when it comes to its practical alliance with the Erdogan regime. The British media, meanwhile, seem to take the view that firing off a few quick attacks over how UK ministers exercise policy towards Erdogan, after each bilateral interaction before the cameras, amounts to “job done”. Following the glib headlines, the subject is rapidly dropped.

More readily ignorable advice

Though the announced agenda for the Merz visit was made up of foreign policy, security and bilateral matters, Germany’s leader should not overlook Turkey’s accelerating slide away from democracy and rights, Frisch also wrote ahead of the chancellor’s arrival in Turkey, offering more readily ignorable advice.

Hours before Starmer’s welcome in Ankara with full military honours, in a surreal turn of events, an Istanbul court issued a new detention order against Ekrem Imamoglu, the already jailed Istanbul mayor and chief political rival to Erdogan. The order was made on the grounds of possible activities of Imamoglu in relation to espionage work conducted by countries including the UK, Frisch noted – as if the latest path pursued by the Erdogan regime would somehow make some difference to something when it came to international reaction.

Germans stage some noise

Merz would do well to voice concerns that locking up and removing elected opposition politicians raises the prospect of Turkey abandoning its history of democracy and becoming a far less stable partner, continued Frisch.

Were his urgings entirely disregarded? Well, during a joint press conference held on October 30 at Erdogan’s presidential palace, the German delegation, in a sense, did exactly what Frisch demanded. Their heart, alas, wasn’t in it. They were merely going through the motions, staging some noise.

In front of the media, Erdogan and Merz first delivered their statements. During his turn, Mertz mumbled a few keywords such as “EU criteria” and “law”.

Next, Erdogan said that he and Merz would take one arranged question from the German media and one from the Turkish media.

The German journalist assigned to deliver a question asked about the Copenhagen criteria (Turkey, lest we forget, remains an EU candidate on paper) and Imamoglu.

Your criteria, my criteria

Erdogan replied that he always retaliates with the Ankara criteria (a meaningless term produced to reply to Copenhagen criteria questions) when he is asked about the Copenhagen criteria.

Turkey applies the best democratic standards in Europe and Asia, he asserted, with the usual brass neck.

On Imamoglu, Erdogan reiterated that Turkish law finds itself fighting against corruption and thievery at the Istanbul Municipality. He also mentioned that he has lately dismissed some football referees accused of illegal betting, and football fans were cheered by the move.

Since February, Turkey has been conducting countless judicial operations. Erdogan talks about how supporting just one operation means supporting the government.

At the end of the day, don’t we know, no one is perfect. Turkey’s government can make some mistakes while conducting so many operations. Of course it can. If someone likes one of the operations, they should be tolerant over possible mistakes in the other operations. Got that?

Holocaust reprimand for Merz

The Turkish media question dwelled on whether the German government finds itself supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza because of the fact of the Holocaust.

Merz repeated some lines on the German government’s backing for Israel, with Erdogan somewhat butting in, saying: “Don’t you, as Germany, see these [bombings in Gaza]? Don't you, as Germany, follow up on these?”

Everyone had played their part on stage. Everyone dispersed. The tension was boxed up and taken away. It could now only be found in some words printed by the media and in video cuts. Like professional actors, those given a role showed the requisite respect to one another as they delivered their scripts.

Dubious, insalubrious Erdogan

Back to the HRW’s Frisch. Erdogan, he pointed out, is increasingly suppressing the political opposition and the media while expanding political control of the courts.

The dubious espionage investigation against Imamoglu is but the latest episode in the Erdogan administration’s barrage of lawsuits directed at the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the popular Istanbul mayor, he noted.

In the spying case, the investigation turns on flimsy claims of data leaks to the UK and other countries as well as on far-fetched allegations from a person who testified against Imamoglu, the German rights defender also contended.

And, he added, it comes on top of unsupported accusations made by the Istanbul prosecutors that Imamoglu heads up a criminal organisation. Well, stone the crows.

More “shoulds” for Berlin and other EU capitals

Germany and other European Union member states should not ignore Turkey’s authoritarian trajectory in trying to deepen their alliance with Erdogan around defence, regional developments and economic relations, Frisch also wrote.

Thumbs-up for Kurdish policy

While “sure” to promote the important efforts being made to end Turkey’s four-decade conflict with the Kurds, Merz and other European leaders also need to call out the simultaneous vicious crackdown under way in Turkey on rights and democracy, and not look the other way, according to Frisch.

Where were we? Yes, that’s right. Supporting a single policy of Turkey’s government means supporting Turkey’s government. Turkey’s government has many policies. It may make some mistakes in some policies. Not to worry, if someone is happy with at least one policy of Turkey’s government, they can support Turkey’s government while happily raising concerns as regards possible mistakes made in other policies.

Ready for AfD and Farage?

In the post-2008 global economic crisis era, the NGO and rights businesses, often funded by governments, have moved further and further into the realm of gibberish. No one claims anymore that free markets will deliver democracy or rights, while the West makes no claim to the job of bringing democracy to the Third World.

Merz is a former employee of BlackRock (New York/BLK), the dominant asset manager in the world. His job was profit maximisation for his bosses, not solving the problems of the low-income masses.

Some speculate that the neoliberal era ended in 2008. However, the finance industry is still in charge in the Western hemisphere, including in the US and Turkey. The difference to before is that it no longer circulates key terms such as “free trade” or other cliches tagged “free”.

The new resource for controlling the growing anger of the masses, the so-called “far-right”, or the European Trumps, is on offer. They have already taken over the government in Italy, while France, Germany and Britain are on the way.

Let’s watch with interest whether the European human rights NGOs and media also provide the upcoming AfD and Nigel Farage governments with some handy advice, chucking in keywords like “law” or “democracy”.