NOW THAT that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has nearly completed a crackdown on dissent at home — closing down opposition newspapers, prosecuting students for joking on Twitter about officials, and putting journalists on trial — he seems intent on silencing critics in other countries as well. After the president arrived in Washington on Tuesday night, his security team got right to work, harassing protesters and journalists outside his hotel, as writers for one of the papers recently shuttered by Erdogan’s government noted.





Erdogan's guards try to silence protesters in DC by shouting louder meaninglessly. A taste of Erdogan regime in USA https://t.co/J95BxkkgES — Sevgi Akarçe?me (@sevgistanbul) March 30, 2016

Turkish president Erdogan's security guards attack journalists outside his hotel in #WashingtonDC - common practicepic.twitter.com/gRSnexarcR — Mare (@nighttides) March 29, 2016

That display of intolerance for dissent followed reports this week that Turkey’s foreign ministry had summoned Germany’s ambassador to complain about a satirical music video mocking Erdogan that was broadcast recently on German television. “We demanded,” a Turkish diplomat told Agence France-Presse, that the show “be removed from the air.” The Germany foreign ministry confirmed the encounter on Tuesday.

In his talks at Ministry of ForeignAffairs #Turkey, GER Ambassador made clear that freedom of press+speech must be secured. @GermanyinTurkey — GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) March 29, 2016

A German diplomatic source told AFP that Ambassador Martin Erdmann rejected the request, explaining that “in Germany, political satire is covered by the freedom of the press and of expression, and the government has neither the need for, nor the option of, taking action.” The music video that prompted the diplomatic crisis was a parody of a 1980s song by the German pop star Nena, “Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann,” (“Anyway, Anywhere, Anytime”). The satirical remix plays on the fact that the German word for “anytime” sounds like the Turkish president’s last name. The new version of the song, “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan,” broadcast March 17 on NDR, a public television channel, pokes fun at the autocratic president in part by mixing footage of him looking ridiculous with criticism of his egotism and intolerance of dissent.

In response to the Turkish demand that the video be censored, the show that produced it, Extra 3, instead added English and Turkish subtitles to the video.