The Turkish government privately contacted Germany's ambassador to demand the censorship of a video satirizing the thin-skinned, famously corrupt Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he of the 1,000-room palace whose erection required the razing of a nature preserve.

Germany and Turkey have a complicated relationship; for decades, Turks have formed a critical part of the German workforce through a "guest-laborer" program, and Turks are the largest ethnic minority in Germany, while millions of former German residents have returned to Turkey, creating a large, distinct political and cultural group there. Meanwhile, the EU and Turkey have struck a bargain to make Turkey the staging ground and containment site for refugees from Syria, just as the tide seems to be turning in Germany, whose open-door policy toward Syrian refugees led to a backlash that saw the election of ultra-right nationalists who ran on a racist/xenophobic platform.

Erdoğan himself is an authoritarian kleptocrat whose corruptibility and xenophobic base were key to the Syria deal. All this makes the satirical video — which highlights Erdoğan's attacks on the free press and political dissent, as well as irregularities in the most recent election — a kind of perfect storm in Germany.

Like many authoritarians, Erdoğan totally underestimates the power of the Streisand Effect, hence his government's demands on the German ambassador, which come off like an imperial majesty ordering crackdowns on press freedom abroad to match the crackdowns at home. This has made fresh headlines in Germany, and Extra 3, the program that originated the video, has aired it again, doubling down on their provocation and winning hearts and minds among Germans, including German Turks.

Moreover, Erdogan brought last addition to journalists and bloggers also increasingly ordinary citizens, including young people, because "President insult" in court. Instead of deleting the satirical video, puts "extra 3" on Tuesday after: On Twitter, the satirical program published the video again criticized – namely with English subtitles . On Facebook was an old Satire Video republished . It declared "John Schlütür" by 2014, as he wants to make Erdogan even more popular than fictional propaganda minister, through the Twitter ban or charges against demonstrators. His model: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Satire against Erdogan: Turkey apparently demanded cancellation of the "extra 3" video [Der Spiegel]



(Thanks, Michael!)