Why Did Al Jazeera Air a Story About Turkey's Brutal Oppression of Journalists?

Avi Melamed - Inside The Middle East | Because Real Knowledge is A True Asset

On July 6, 2019 Qatari-owned Al Jazeera aired the first of a three-part show called "Media haven or hell? The paradox of journalism in Turkey" highlighting Turkey's brutal oppression of treatment of Turkish journalists and thinkers.

The report aired while Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar was in Washington, DC meeting with US President Trump.

This is intriguing because Qatar and Turkey have a close relationship.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President Turkey, constantly strives to position himself as the leader of the Sunni world in the Middle East, challenging major Arab Sunni states like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

Qatar strives to position itself as leading Arab Gulf Monarchy and to that end conducts a regional and foreign policy that challenges the line of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). As a result, in 2017 Saudi and the United Arab Emirates initiated a blockade on Qatar.

This podcast explores Qatar's reasons and illustrates the point that everything in the Middle East is linked. And if you understand the links in the chain, you can make sense of seemingly disconnected, yet very connected events - and even begin to "predict the future."