Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the New York Times for the third time in a week. "This newspaper had once called Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid an 'absolute monarch.' And today it directs to the Republic of Turkey and me the hate that it once directed to the Ottoman state," Erdogan said at the May 30 event in Istanbul marking the 562nd anniversary of the Turks’ conquest of Istanbul. Erdogan was referring to the US daily's reports on Turkey's Young Turk Revolution in 1908, which restored the Ottoman constitution of 1876, ending Sultan Abdulhamid's rule with an iron fist. "Abdul Hamid's reign as an absolute monarch is over. The forces of the Constitutionalists are in full possession of the capital after fierce fighting following an attack which began about 5 o'clock this morning, and in which the attacking troops used artillery," an NYT report had said on April 25, 1909. As the June 7 general elections approach, Erdogan has toughened his rhetoric against critical voices in the Turkish media, as well international outlets. Most recently, he slammed the New York Times during rallies on May 25 and May 26, over its May 22 editorial that criticized his “long history of intimidating and co-opting the Turkish media. ”In his May 30 speech, Erdogan pointed a finger at the family owning the New York Times, claiming that the U.S. daily is "close to the Armenian lobby and has recently started to engage in a cooperation with Pennsylvania," referring to the Pennsylvania-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, his erstwhile ally. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Istanbul's Yenikapi Square, turning the event a political tour de force a week before the general election.
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