Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in recent years been arrogating to himself more and more power in Turkey. His neo-Ottomanism is not just about spreading Turkish power to former Ottoman territories, but also about enlarging his own power inside Turkey, transforming him into a new Sultan or Padishah on the Ottoman model. He brooks no criticism. Those who express the slightest disagreement with him may find themselves imprisoned. This happened recently to ten retired admirals; their story is here: “Turkey arrests admirals, student for criticism,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, April 6, 2021:
Turkey has increased its crackdown on critics of the ruling party with a new round of arrests. This time it targeted former navy admirals who expressed criticism about the country potentially building a new canal.
While the issue might seem banal, in Turkey there is no critique permitted of anything the ruling party of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The country increasingly jails people for tweets and calls individuals “terrorists” for protests at universities.
Although he had been accumulating power for decades, it was the failed coup against Erdogan in 2016 that led to a swift expansion of that power. His government arrested 150,000 Turks – high school teachers, university professors, rectors, military men, judges, lawyers, businessmen, and journalists, most of them secularists opposed to his re-islamizing project, though some were the followers of his rival Fethulleh Gulen, who supposedly directed the abortive coup (it was Erdogan’s most preposterous claim) — from his exile in Pennsylvania. All these people were discharged from their jobs; some had to take up new professions; many went into forced exile. Turkey currently has more journalists in prison than any other country.
Turkey on Monday detained ten retired admirals after they openly criticized a canal project, France 24 reported. The project is “dear to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a country where the hint of military insubordination raises the specter of past coups.” The actual criticism is quite mild and the actual issue appears banal.
Note that these were retired admirals. They thus had no officers or men under their command. They posed no threat of a military coup to the government. Their expression of disagreement was apparently “quite mild,” yet it was enough, in Erdogan’s despotism, to get them arrested.
The official approval last month of plans to develop a 45-kilometer (28-mile) shipping lane in Istanbul comparable to the Panama or Suez canals has opened up debate about Turkey’s commitment to the 1936 Montreux Convention,” the report reads.
The admirals prefer a Turkey that is part of international agreements and follows them. Turkey has increasingly been threatening its neighbors in Greece and causing controversy with the US and NATO by acquiring Russian weapon systems.
Turkey has illegally sent its own ships to search for gas deposits in Greek and Cypriot territorial waters, even while threatening and forcing other vessels, that had a right to be there, to leave. These have included both Greek and Israeli ships (the Greek and Cypriot governments having given Israel permission to search for gas in their waters) that were legally present.
Erdogan has insisted that Turkey buy the Russian S-400 missile defense system, which led the Americans to revoke their promise to sell Turkey the top-of-the-line F-35 Stealth fighter jets. The Pentagon feared that the Russians would be able to study how the S-400 system did against the F-35 fighter jets, and tweak the S-400 accordingly. There is also the problem of interoperability of NATO defense systems with the Russian S-400.
It has also fueled conflict in Libya, Syria and Azerbaijan and has used Syrian refugees as mercenaries. Any critique of Ankara’s drift toward authoritarianism, religious extremism and extremist rhetoric is increasingly being treated as “terrorism” and people are arrested in Turkey even for tweets that are many years old.
Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism has led him to send troops, both hundreds of Turks, and 5,000 Syrian mercenaries, to support the Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, against the forces of General Haftar based in Tobruk. In return, Turkey has been allowed to establish a permanent military presence in the country. Ankara is already building a naval base as part of Misrata’s port (Misrata is a city where 1.4 million “Libyan Turks,” the descendants of Turks who arrived during the last two centuries, live), and a base at the al-Waitya air base in the desert southwest of Tripoli.
Turkish troops have also moved into Syria, to push the Syrian Kurds back from the Turkish border, lest they join up with the forces of the Kurdish PKK inside Turkey. Those troops have taken over a wide swathe of northern Syria, an 8,835-square-kilometre area which encompasses over 1000 settlements, including towns such as Afrin, al-Bab, Azaz, Jarabulus, Jindires, Rajo, Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn. And though the Kurds have now been pushed southward, the Turkish troops are apparently intending to stay.
In Azerbaijan, the Turks supported the government’s decision to move against the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised Azerbaijan’s “great operation both to defend its own territories and to liberate the occupied Karabakh. Turkey stands with and will continue to stand with friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan with all our means and all our heart.”
As part of his expansionist foreign policy, Erdogan has also sent troops to Somalia, to establish a presence on the Horn of Africa. The Turks have even been “Turkifying” Somali troops, teaching them the Turkish language along with military skills. They hope to raise a generation of “Turkish” Somalis who will remain loyal to, and obey orders from, Ankara.
Ankara’s ruling AK Party controls most of the media in the country and the government uses the media as AK party mouthpieces, from TRT to Anadolu and other major media. This makes it difficult for any discussion in Turkey to include any critique of government policy. Turkey’s retired admirals had merely expressed concern about the country’s obligations to a convention; for that, they may be imprisoned.
Turkey jails more journalists than any other country in the world. The government has total control of the Turkish media – newspapers, radio, television, Internet news sites. Criticism, however slight, can lead to loss of one’s job, expulsion from the country, or imprisonment.
But harsh punishments are also inflicted on those who have done absolutely nothing except be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was the case with many dozens of trainee pilots in the Turkish Air Force. They were recently sentenced to life in prison for a 2016 coup attempt they had no role in. The young men happened to be at a military base that was used by coup plotters, but did not take any part; they were merely trainees who had been assigned to the base where some of the officers who took part in the coup also were stationed. For being in the same base as the plotters, the young men will be in prison for the rest of their lives.
These were the most promising pilots in Turkey’s air force. It took ten years, and huge investments in training, tp prepare them to fly F-16s. Apparently, two entire classes of trainees were imprisoned. How many F-16 pilots does Turkey still have, after such a widespread purge, both of the seasoned F-16 pilots who took part in the coup, and of two classes of trainee pilots who were entirely innocent but given life sentences nonetheless?
In another case, Turkey detained a student from Canada’s Carleton University. He has been kept in prison for six months for a tweet he wrote seven years ago. Most Western democracies are afraid to critique Ankara’s crackdowns and do not stand by Turkish students who attend Western universities.
The Turkish government is relentless in unearthing, and punishing, those it regards as “enemies.” Just think: the authorities sentenced a Turkish-Canadian to six months in prison because, seven years ago, he happened to post a tweet critical of the government. Who would even have remembered the tweet from that long ago? But the Turkish security forces are relentless, and spread their net far and wide.
Turkey is just as despotic a state as China, Russia or Iran, in the government’s intolerance of the slightest dissent. Turkey is aggressive, busily establishing military bases abroad in Libya, Syria, and Somalia. Ankara has chosen a Russian missile defense system despite Washington’s imploring it not to do so. Erdogan sits sultan-like in his 1,100 room White Palace (Ak Saray) that cost 700 million dollars, a modern sultan handing down his decrees . He has given Turkish citizenship, and provided Turkish passports, to at least a dozen members of the terror group Hamas. Erdogan has recently pulled Turkey out of the Council of Europe’s treaty on violence against women. Turkey was the only one of the Council’s 47 members to do so. Erdogan has had published his plan for the formation of a pan-Islamic army that would be capable of destroying Israel, no doubt for him a pleasing prospect. He has declared that there might be a future conflict “between the Crescent and the Cross,” leaving no doubt as to which side Turkey would be on. Given all this, the question that abides, and still remains a puzzlement, is this: why is Turkey still in NATO?
mortimer says
The censorious, ruling Democrats (with BigTech oligarchs) are also stifling all voices of opposition in the USA. Former CIA Brennan wants to arrest all leading Republicans. He must envy the dictatorial powers of Erdogan. A permanent one-party state is the dream of the modern Dems and Erdogan. Such an authoritarian state working hand in glove with big corporations is the system of government called ‘CORPORATISM’ by Mussolini. Later historians call this censorious, one-party system being implemented in America and Turkey ‘FASCISM’.
Infidel says
NATO is a joke: the real question is – why are we still in NATO? We can sign bilateral defense agreements w/ countries like Poland and Ukraine, who fear any Russian invasion
There are 2 things above that Hugh glossed over. One is the quiet increase in Turkey’s influence w/ the ex-Soviet stans. W/ Azerbaijan, it’s been pretty brazen in the war w/ Armenia. But even aside from that, Turkey created an international racial organization called the Turkic Council, that has aside from Turkey and Azerbaijan, 3 of the 4 other ex-Soviet countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. That pretty much helps Erdogan glorify Turkey’s Turkic antecedents – be it Ottoman, Seljuq, Qhwarezmid or Timuride, and create a trans-Caspian bloc to both offset the Arab League as well as limit Russian influence in capitals like Tashkent
The other thing Turkey has done has been to win over muslim countries that were either glossed over or disdained by the Arabs. Hugh described Somalia above, but there’s also Turkey’s ‘islamophobia’ alliance w/ both Malaysia and Pakistan. W/ Pakistan in particular, Turkey has done joint military exercises, and unlike the Arab Gulf countries, they didn’t even have to bankroll Pakistan. All they did was officially endorse Pakistan’s claims on Kashmir, and they have one of the largest muslim countries on their side. In addition to that, a Turkish tele-serial about the father of the founder of the Ottoman empire – Ertragul Ghazi – which has been resented by the Arabs, has been a big hit in both Pakistan and Bangladesh. That alone would give Turkey the support of 400 million muslims in its quest for the leadership of the ummah
Since Pakistan considers itself a successor state to the Delhi sultanates and the Mughal empire from 1200-1700s, almost all of which had Turkic rulers – Erdogan could just invite his good pal Imran to join him in the Turkic Council as well. Only question is whether China would be willing to share ownership of Pakistan w/ Turkey
oskar says
No single government, including Mr. Macron’s government, sides with the Turkish dissidents against the terrorist Erdogan’s tyranny. I thought France was supportive of the Kurds and Turkish dissidents at some point. I can’t hear their supporting voices anymore, instead they align with the dictator of Turkey. On the other hand I am not surprised that the dhimmi government of Canada works with terrorist Erdogan to crack down on his dissidents.
Turks should be mindful of Erdogan’s Turkey-destroying terrorist activities and Western democracies must raise their voices against Ankara. If they don’t do it today, tomorrow they have no right to cry when Erdogan’s islamofascist armies shows up on their gates. This country was a secular, civilized and beautiful one. Not a barbaric, desert civilization. Erdogan and his terrorist islamist party is more dangerous to Turkey than the Kurdish PKK. If there would be an armed rebellion in Turkey – which I would gladly join – there will be a bloodshed and Erdogan’s terrorists will die like rats. I see their cowardice in their eyes. I know that terrorist pig Erdogan is a very cowardly paranoid scum.
Westman says
The natural Bosphorus Strait already handles traffic from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. The “Kanal” project would allow Erdogan to shut down the Bosphorus to shipping and extract money from all shipping passing through Istanbul. “Build it, and they will come to be fleeced” only works if there is no alternative.
The retired Admirals knew this would cause conflict, perhaps naval war, and rightly criticized the Kanal project.
Extracting money from the unbeliever’s shipping is very Islamic and will compensate for declining oil production and rising inflation. The revival of Islam in Turkey is already shackling its economy as it does in all Muslim nations.
Infidel says
If Erdogan shuts down the Bosporus, he will risk attracting the wrath of Putin, since Russia’s only ports that are never iceblocked – Sochi and Sevastopol – have to use the Bosporus to gain access to the Mediterranean sea and beyond. Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine may not be a threat to Turkey, but Russia would!
I also don’t think oil production is an issue w/ Turkey, since it is critical for Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to get their oil out for export to Europe. This dependence alone would give Turkey enough leverage to get favorable pricing and supply from these countries. For Turkmenistan, their alternative is the Chabahar port of Iran, now being built by the Chicoms, and so once that is done, they may be able to get their oil out to the Arabian Sea. But otherwise, as far as oil goes, Turkey is in no danger of facing any oil shortage. They are also unlikely to overpower Israel when it comes to drilling Cypriot and Greek waters
Westman says
I was referencing Turkey’s own oil production and sales.
It would be a natural move for Erdogan to have special arrangements with Russia over Bosphorus access in exchange for miltary protection as he moves out of NATO. Erdogan may be working on a long range strategy that has more than the apparent parts.
Infidel says
I would be curious about how he’d intend to pull that off while he tries expanding Turkey’s influence w/ the -stans, which can only come at the expense of Moscow
Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine will become almost landlocked countries, depending on the likes of Croatia, Montenegro and Greece for a sea access. Since there are 3 potential Turkish stooges in Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo disrupting obvious alternatives
Westman says
What are your thoughts on why Erdogan wants to build the canal?
Infidel says
Why does one need a canal when a strait is already available?
born saturday says
the sultans new ottomaniac chalifate has done this and much more like turning the Hagia Sofia into a mosque….. much more…. but in libya he didnt just get permision for a base, rather than the whole of the gold reserves of libya (enormous previous wealth of libya) transfered to turkey in exchange of building a base in there and in exchange of winning the war for the islamic fundamentalist west government of libya…. and, turkey has no sortage of pilots for the f 16s as it uses pakistani pilots to fly their planes above greek people…..turkey is ready to aquire nuclear weapon technology from pakistan to arm its already up and running bora missiles with nuclear warheads…. within a few years,,,,
Jack says
Please do not encourage him! He is not a “Sultan” but a puppet dictator! And all European and American leaders turn their heads to his dictatorship for their interest in last 20 years. If Turkey was became an EU member, we don’t need to deal with Erdogan’s Turkey today. Like I said, our so called leaders turn their heads another way for their interests. We need to support secularists of Turkey, and demand the same thing from our leaders; “Do not encourage Erdogan! Do not make any deals.”
Infidel says
A sultan is a dictator, actually, a king. And no he’s nobody’s puppet: he has been resurrecting visions of Turkic glory and creating a virtual empire that his Ottoman ancestors would be proud of. And his claims to be the commander of the faithful has support from countries like Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Somalia, Yemen, PA and Libya’s GNA. As well as from jihadist groups like Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and their political affiliates
Secularists in countries like Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh are a lost cause. Non muslims in those countries face the brunt of jihadist attacks, and even muslims lukewarm about jihad are just meek spectators of events. In Turkey, the political demographics have heavily shifted in favor of the jihadists, as Mark Steyn once pointed out, and the Kemalist republic is dead, and ain’t comin’ back! Turkey is now a de-facto Ottoman republic, and the sooner the world recognizes that and acts according to that reality (like the Arab states have), the better!
seabird says
“Why is Turkey still in NATO”?
The only explanation I can think of is that they (nato) could not bear the thought of Russian or Chinese aircraft using the Incirlic airbase in Turkey. NATO has invested billion$ in that base (incl. sub bases and radar installations).
It has superb runways capable of handling the largest bombers and of course secure vaults to store nuclear weapons which may or may not be there. Some say they were moved to Romania or other countries, some say they were disarmed. Supposedly they are outdated but still dangerous in the wrong hands.
Erdogan, who sometimes tells the truth, claims the coup against him was orchestrated by the CIA and Gulen members.
I believe in one of your previous articles, Mr Fitzgerald, you mention a “coup” as a reasonable consideration to NATO’s frightening Turkish problem.
If the CIA was involved, wouldn’t it appear that they have failed in another adventure like the “Bay of Pigs” in Cuba?
There may be a story there.
Concerning Azerbaijan, Turkey’s closest and maybe only true ally, the recent conflict there
from many reports, claimed over 100 officers from Turkey directed the air war campaign in AZ using an Awac type control aircraft which circled inside Turkey close to the Armenian border.
On the ground, the Turks and Azeris used special forces commandos in some cases fronted by a few thousand jihadist mercenaries they flew in as cannon fodder. These mercs were told that if they retreated they would be shot and there are recorded calls from them to Syria warning others (jihadists) to stay away because the war was a “meat grinder”.
And indeed it was, Armenian artillery with pinpoint accuracy decimated anything that entered the territory. Even Pres. Trump said; “they fought like hell”.
A battle the Turks and Azeris claimed would only take 3-4 days lasted 44 days but the field advantage quickly changed.
Turkish high altitude drones along with the Harput Israeli “suicide/loitering drones” and missiles laid waste to the battlefield (including hospitals and churches) forcing the defenders into the forests for cover with no sufficient defense against the attack.
It was a good thing the Russians stopped it because things were moving quickly towards all out war between AZ and Armenia (which held back using a lot of its weaponry to avoid that escalation.
To me, this was the first “hi-tech” war of the 21st century where soldiers on the battlefield
become a huge liability.
Reportedly, there were over 300 drones and UAV’s downed on the battlefield and even one Harput drone downed intact inside the Iranian border.
Now, I fear that these weapons will mass-proliferate and there is no safe defense against them in cities and in the hands of a murderous operator.
On March 18, 2021, Azerbaijan Sec., Shahriyan Hajiye, at a UNHRC meeting in Geneva of the 120 Non-aligned Nations (AZ Pres. Aliyev is Chairman), Hajye issued a blistering condemnation of Israel professing AZ’s “solidarity with the Palestinian people and their just cause” and how Israel has committed “massive, flagrant and systematic violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law”..etc,etc.
Maybe this is the reason AZ refuses to open either an Embassy or even a Consulate in Israel. There also is not, to my knowledge any Holocaust Memorial in Azerbaijan.
I didn’t hear anyone responding to this so it must be another story, waiting to be told.
I’ll leave you to your own conclusions, I’m just a messenger.
jirtu says
No day passes without Erdogan piling further crimes, aggression, threats to his neighbors, and spitting at the West. And yet, the West kowtows to his every whim and even apologizes for inadvertently offending Turkish sensibilities. Why does the West tolerate the repeated kick in its shin when without Western economic support, Erdogan’s 83-million people would go hungry? Is it Western stupidity, cowardice, treachery? The man who has made no secret his intention to conquer the Balkans uses the Turkish minority in Europe as a fifth column has made public to take the Middle East, and extend Turkish power over the “stans” to China. A few months ago, Turkey allied with Azerbaijan to invade Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh (Turkey+Azerbaian=93 million people while Armenian Karabakh 150,000) killing 5,000 people and conquering a large chunk of Armenian lands. Since then, the Turks and the Azeris (they are the same race) have been destroying Armenian churches, monuments, and historic buildings to erase any sign of Armenian ownership from a land that has been Armenian for close to 3,000 years. There has been not as single word of condemnation from the West except from Greece and France. Turkey keeps boasting about its large army and uses that army to threaten everyone. Although that army can be turned into ghost if the West hit Turkey
economically, the jellies that govern Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, and the U.S. rather sit and wipe their faces off Erdogan’s spit.
gravenimage says
Sultan Erdogan Continues His Crackdown on Critics
………………
Erdogan is a thug and a dictator–in other words, just like a Sultan.
Sue says
Look up Marko Miljanov he was my Grandmothers Grandfather that fought the Turks in the Ottoman War. He was very honored in Montenegro ?? they did plays about him , he even was on a postal stamp. My Grandparents lost dozens of ancestors so their families sent them in their 20s to America 1908. My Grandmother made friends with a Woman who was on the Ship heading to meet with husband in Colorado. My Grandmother convinced Mrs Perica to tell her Husband to moved to Arizona. They came 2 months later. Her husband worked in a mine with my Grandfather. They had 7 Children Boys and Girls. My Grandparents has 7 Boys. Their youngest was a Girl she became Rose Mofford Arizona’s first Woman Governor. She had been Secretary of State for 20+ years!
I’m so glad my Grandparents came here. My daughter visited Montenegro and went to 9 Post Offices to get Miljanov Stamps they just had displays and wouldn’t give them up until she began crying. She sent me a whole sheet! She’s the only one in the family to visit there, said it’s beautiful! I hope Turkey stays away from Montenegro!
gravenimage says
Thanks.
ROBERT CARRILLO says
Ilhan Omar’s pal.. Go figure.. No one here in Minnesotastan is surprised..
These people are not human..
ROBERT CARRILLO says
Ilhan Omar’s pal.. Go figure.. No one here in Minnesotastan is surprised..
These people are not human..
See the documentary entitled ‘The Islamic Infiltration of Minnesota’..
ROBERT CARRILLO says
Correction: It is titled: ‘The Islamic Infiltration in Minnesota’..
ROBERT CARRILLO says
Correction:
Ilhan Omar’s pal.. Go figure.. No one here in Minnesotastan is surprised..
These people are not human..
See the documentary entitled ‘The Islamic Infiltration in Minnesota’..
Mauricio says
What an example of a politician, this italian, watch:
https://orthodoxtimes.com/italian-pm-called-turkish-president-dictator/
gravenimage says
Good to hear, Mauricio.
OLD GUY says
Erdogan is a dictator plain and simple. As his power grows he will become more embolden and remove all who disagree with his vision of grandeur. Little Hitler.
Leonidas says
Barbaric Islam ( submission)will collapse in 80%), DISGUISED AS A RELIGION( 40 years ago ,achieving spectacular economic growth and pulling >800mil chinese out of poverty.Muslim Immigration is Hijra( flight)to take over the country they settle in ,like Muhammad did to Yatrib-Medina.This, along with forced child marriages and four wives per man ( Bin Laden had 52 siblings and 16 children),the muslims will soon outnumber the local populations,will destroy and replace the identity and culture of the country they settle in and will impose barbaric islamic Sharia law .Muslim refugees should stay in Turkey , Syria and Libya with international support or go to vast rich Saudi Arabia ,until they can return to their countries ,as Dalai Lama proposed.Denounce islamic Sharia (=way)law of blasphemer,apostate ,homosexual , adulterer and hypocrite executions,misogyny,honor killings by stoning,hand amputations for theft,child brides,girls exclusion from schools,halal meat from non anesthetized tortured animals certified by paid imams,clitorectomies,subjugation and segregationofwomen,burkas,banning of short skirts,bikinis,dancing,singing,painting and sculptures of people,dogs,pork,alcohol and beauty contests . Elect antiislamic politicians that condemn Sharia.Avoid trade with muslim countries ,that practice Sharia or support jihad.Demand gender equality for ALL muslim women.Punish severely those that kill apostates from Islam,blasphemers,adulterers or muslim hypocrites.No more political correctness to muslim criminals!No appeasement, privileges or accommodations to muslims.Islam is incompatible with our freedom of speech, gender equality, values,way of life, Human Rights, Constitution, Republic and population stability needed to sustain Life on Earth.Tolerating intolerant Islam is cultural suicide!Now is the time for all of us >6 billion Kafir-infidels ,past, present and future victims of Islam ,to unite and defeat the jihad and tyranny of Islamofascism by exposing and opposing it daily.When this is achieved Peace and security will finally come to the World.By saving on the present exorbitant security costs, we can reforest the deserts,develop green energy, combat disease , pollution,poverty , illiteracy and colonize Mars.
For more info on Islam go to YOU TUBE for: Apostate Prophet,Exmuslims,David Wood,Ayan Hirsi Ali,BrigitteGabriel,BillWarner,Politicalislam.org,PamelaGeller,Jihadwatch,Nonie Darwish , Wafa Sultan,Richard Dawkins on Islam,Ani Cyrus , Geert Wilder,obsession – what the West needs to know,MEMRI etc.
Also Google: Wikiislam, The religion of peace,barenakedislam, etc.
ISLAM IS A MENTAL ILLNESS,LIE , SLAVERY,DEATH,DECEPTION,TYRANNY AND TERROR AND TRUTH AND REASON WILL KILL IT!ISLAM IS ,AS ISIS DOES!
The evil Koran at a glance:http://www.koran-at-a-glance.com/index.html
Allah is a gangster says the son of Hamas leader:https://youtu.be/Kvfn-RwTHbE
Silly Hadiths of Muhammad:https://councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=4724.0
Why the Left loves muslim mass immigrationhttps://youtu.be/Vu1trFe9BsI
Apostateprophethttps://youtu.be/zT8jv6lZFOg
The deposition of Ayan Hirsi Ali in Congress on how to defeat Islam:
https://www.hoover.org/research/challenge-dawa-political-islam-ideology-and-movement-and-how-counter-it
Prof Asher Matathias says
B”H While it’s tempting to equate Turkey’s diminish standing as a reliable NATO ally under President Erdogan, his tenure must be seen a glitch, an aberration in the country’s traditional Kemalist commitment to becoming a secular progressive polity. Erdogan’s provocations —- especially the acquisition of Russian defensive systems —- are incomparable with the need for cohesive Western solidarity to confront a similarly threatening Russian bear. Sanctioning, and isolating Turkey’s Erdogan is the preferred short-term policy, leaving open the prospect for better relations with this traditionally moderate Moslem nation for after he leaves office!
gravenimage says
Erdogan has been either president or prime minister of Turkey since 2003–almost twenty years–and he does not seem inclined to leave office any time soon. I see little indication that Kemalism is apt to return any time soon–if ever.
jirtu says
Erdogan reflects Turkey. When a president/prime minister wins every election for 20 years it means his people are behind him whether he shoots down women’s rights, imprisons critics, bans freedom of the press, attacks Syria, Libya, Iraq, and, Armenia, threatens to attack Greece, illegally dredges for gas in waters belonging to Greece, claims Jerusalem–by extension Israel–belongs to Turkey. They are an apt match–Erdogan and Turks.