Turkey has seen a dramatic decline when it comes to the rule of law and freedom of speech, Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol, who lives in the United States, told N1.

Aykol commented on the recent case of the arrest of a famous Turkish journalist, Sedef Kabas, saying that people are being jailed if they insult Turkish President Recep Tazzip Erdogan in any way – which was similar during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

“I was hoping Turkey would be in a much better place right now than it is. The problem is Turkey went down in its freedom of speech and rule of law dramatically in the past 10 years.

He argued that “if people are in power, they should be open to being criticised” and should have the “maturity to tolerate criticism.”

Aykol explained that Turkey is “very polarised” today and that the legal system has “sided with the executive.”