Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by conniption » Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:43 am
aljazeera
Turkey's capital Ankara rocked by deadly explosion
At least 28 killed and 61 wounded after car bomb reportedly targets military personnel travelling in heart of city.
17 Feb 2016
the guardian
Hundreds of armed rebels cross from Turkey into Syria, says monitor
Wednesday 17 February 2016
by Wombaticus Rex » Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:53 am
by 82_28 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 1:16 am
by conniption » Thu Feb 18, 2016 4:25 am
Published on Feb 16, 2016
We are experiencing an extraordinarily dangerous moment in history. The possible illegal ground invasion of Syria by Turkey and Saudi Arabia could ignite a conflict engulfing the great powers that would be difficult to control. Can Washington manage its erratic anti-Assad coalition?
CrossTalking with Eric Draitser, Ali Rizk, and Huseyin Bagci.
by Nordic » Fri Feb 19, 2016 3:42 am
by AlicetheKurious » Fri Feb 19, 2016 5:42 pm
by conniption » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:59 pm
Russia Insider
(embedded links)
Did Russia Just Threaten Turkey With Nuclear Weapons?
Alexander Mercouris
9 hours ago
The US investigative journalist Robert Parry has made an astonishing claim - and one that has gone completely unnoticed.
He is reporting that the Russian government has warned Erdogan that Russia is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons to defend its Syrian strike force from Turkish attack.
Parry’s exact words are as follows:
“A source close to Russian President Vladimir Putin told me that the Russians have warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons if necessary to save their troops in the face of a Turkish-Saudi onslaught.
Since Turkey is a member of NATO, any such conflict could quickly escalate into a full-scale nuclear confrontation.”
Generally I would be skeptical of such a story from an anonymous source. However Parry is a journalist of the highest reliability and integrity so there can be no doubt he actually has been told this by a real source.
Of course it is possible the source is making the story up, or that he is not as close to Putin as Parry believes.
However on 11th February 2016 Russia’s Security Council held a meeting the public report of which is unusually terse, whilst on the same day the Russian military reported to Putin about a series of military exercises arranged at short notice in their southern military district, which look like they were intended to prepare the Russian military for rapid action at short notice against Turkey should the need arise.
If a warning really was given it might have been given either on that day or possibly on the day after, to coincide with the military exercises whose meaning in that case would not be lost on either the US or the Turks.
The meeting of the Security Council (whose importance I discussed here) would in that case have been convened to discuss and authorise it.
The fact Obama telephoned Putin a day later on 14th February 2016 might also be connected to the warning, if it really was given.
Both the Turks and the Russians would surely have informed the US of such a warning. It would be entirely understandable in that case that the US President would want to discuss it with the Russian President. In fact it would be astonishing if he did not want to.
If it was the warning Obama and Putin discussed, then that might explain why the US and the Russians are giving such completely different accounts of the conversation.
Neither side would want to make the warning public - something which would escalate the crisis to stratospheric levels - and each would want to concoct a cover story to hide what was really discussed, which given the circumstances and the urgency they might be unlikely to coordinate with each other. That might explain why the accounts of the conversation differ so much.
Against that it must be said that it is by no means unusual for Russian and Western governments to publish radically different accounts of conversations Russian and Western leaders have with each other.
All this it should be stressed is speculation, though as is apparent it is consistent with some of the diplomatic and military moves.
If such a warning really was given it would not be the first time the US or Russia have threatened to use nuclear weapons.
The US for example warned Saddam Hussein in 1990 that it was ready to retaliate with nuclear weapons if he used chemical weapons against their troops in the First Gulf War.
However a threat to use nuclear weapons is one that is never made lightly. If it really was made it shows how fraught the situation in Syria has become.
If the Russians really did make such a threat then it would be a further reason why the US and its European allies would be urging Erdogan to act with restraint, and would be counselling him against plunging into a war with the Russians in Syria.
I had already guessed this was the case (see here and here) and in the same article in which he reports the Russian threat Parry discusses this issue extensively.
Confirmation that the Western powers are warning Erdogan against an invasion of Syria has now also come from the Financial Times (see “Turkey and Saudi Arabia consider Syria intervention”, Financial Times, 18th February 2016):
“The US is seeking to rein in its allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia from military action in Syria if a ceasefire planned for today in the bloody civil war fails.
Despite mounting regional frustration over Washington’s allegedly passive stance on the five-year-old conflict the Obama administration and other western powers are worried that direct military interventions could lead to an escalation of the conflict and a dangerous clash with Russia.
“Are they going to deploy troops there? Not if we can help it,” said one senior Nato diplomat.””
Each day now provides further news of advances by the Syrian army and its allies in northern Syria.
The very latest information is that the last major rebel held town in Latakia province has been recaptured by the Syrian army, and that the Syrian army is just a few kilometres away from the city of Idlib.
Slowly but surely the trap around the jihadi rebels in Aleppo is closing.
Meanwhile - whether because of warnings from Moscow or Washington or for some other reason - the Turks and the Saudis have so far not matched their rhetoric with action.
The much discussed Saudi aircraft deployment to the US airbase at Incirlik has turned out to be much smaller than initially reported, and may not actually have taken place.
The Turks are publicly sticking to their position that they will not send their troops into Syria unilaterally - which could be taken to mean they will not invade Syria unless they have US agreement and unless the US contributes ground troops to the invasion force.
Turkish action so far has been limited to cross-border shelling of Kurdish forces near Azaz and demands the Kurds stay away from Azaz, which is near the Turkish border and which the Turks say they want to make part of a buffer zone.
Even these moves have been too much for some of Turkey’s NATO allies, provoking criticism by some NATO states of Turkey for its shelling of the Kurds, though claims the UN Security Council has passed a Resolution condemning Turkey’s actions are untrue.
Interestingly the Western powers seem reluctant to endorse Turkey’s claims the Kurds of Iraq and Syria - as opposed to the Kurds of Turkey - were behind Wednesday’s terrorist attack on a military convoy in Ankara (see this discussion here), whilst Turkey’s response to the attack was to bomb Kurdish targets in Iraq rather than in Syria.
The situation is still very tense and it is premature to say that the crisis - if one exists - is past.
Whether because of Russian threats to use nuclear weapons or because of calls of restraint from the West and possibly from his own military or for some other reason, the signs for the moment however point to Erdogan backing off.
With every day that passes without a Turkish ground invasion the prospects of it happening grow less. The next few weeks should decide the issue.
by AlicetheKurious » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:32 pm
conniption wrote:The Turks are publicly sticking to their position that they will not send their troops into Syria unilaterally - which could be taken to mean they will not invade Syria unless they have US agreement and unless the US contributes ground troops to the invasion force.
by conniption » Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:03 am
Information Clearing House
(embedded links)
Smelling EU Fear, Turkey Moves in for $6.6bn Kill
By Finian Cunningham
March 08, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "RT" - When the Ankara government carried out a brutal media crackdown at the weekend and then saw minimal Western protest as a result, President Erdogan knew he had the upper-hand – to leverage the refugee crisis.
It seems more than strange that, only three days before a high-profile summit was to take place between European Union leaders and Turkey on Europe’s refugee crisis, the Ankara authorities carried out an audacious assault on democratic rights.
The violent police seizure of Turkey’s biggest opposition newspaper, Zaman, and its immediate cowing into a tame pro-government publication represents the most brazen authoritarian move to date by the ruling AK party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish opposition politicians denounced the full-frontal assault on independent media as tantamount to a coup d’état by Erdogan.
But the Western response to the draconian display of state power was more muted than ever. There was hardly any Western media coverage of the Zaman seizure. Both Washington and the EU merely issued perfunctory statements of “concern,” and breathlessly urged Ankara to respect “free speech” and “core European values.”
In recent months, Erdogan has been locking up journalists and closing critical media outlets. Under his increasingly autocratic rule, the Ankara authorities have prosecuted thousands of citizens who have “insulted” the president through social media.
More gravely, Erdogan has ordered a bloody wave of repression against ethnic Kurds in the country’s southeast, with disturbing reports of mass killings by Turkish troops. Turkish military have also been shelling across the border at Kurdish positions in Syria for several weeks now.
It is not as if EU leaders are oblivious to Erdogan’s rogue conduct. An EU report issued in November highlighted the growing repression of human rights. But still Erdogan continued his autocratic power-grab anyway. And the full-scale assault on an opposition news media outlet at the weekend is arguably his most flagrant move yet. The timing suggests it was a gambit to test EU resolve.
In other words, Erdogan knew from the Western silence and empty platitudes that there would be no repercussions for his repressive gambit. And why was that? Because, as Erdogan is all too aware, the EU is on its knees to gain his cooperation on ending the refugee crisis assailing its very foundations. That, in turn, meant that he could send his prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to Brussels to extract whopping concessions.
Significantly, at the last minute before the Brussels summit opened on Monday, Turkey’s premier Davutoglu pulled out “some new ideas.” One of those “new ideas” was that Ankara was no longer requesting $3.3 billion in EU aid, as it had done four months previously. Ankara was now demanding double the money.
Davutoglu hinted at the upper-hand when he arrived in Brussels, saying: “The whole future of Europe is on the table.” And he also let it be known that Turkey was talking more than just refugees, adding that Ankara expected “a new era in Turkey-EU relations.”
The upshot of negotiations in Brussels this week is that Turkey is to receive a 100 percent increase in promised financial aid from the European Union – to $6.6 billion – supposedly for accommodating Syrian refugees on its territory.
Ankara also wrung a promise from Euroland that its 75 million citizens could avail of visa-free travel by as early as June this year; and, perhaps the biggest prize of all, Turkey got a commitment from Brussels to speed up its long-delayed accession to the European Union.
A Financial Times report hinted at the delicate balancing act: “EU leaders tread carefully over Turkey’s media crackdown,” adding: “Leaders careful not to jeopardize deal with Ankara on migration.”
In theory, the EU has been spared the nightmare scenario of thousands of refugees crossing on a daily basis from Turkey into Greece and thence further north. The uncontrolled migration over the past year was threatening the very existence of the 28-nation EU, with member states publicly bickering over closed borders and perceived unfair burdens.
What Ankara appears to be giving in exchange is its cooperation in the systematic return of all refugees presently in Greece – some 30,000 – back to Turkey. At some unspecified future date, the EU is committed to take back Syrian refugees in equal numbers in a seemingly orderly process of asylum application. However, it remains to be seen if such a complex arrangement of refugees being brought back to the EU can work in practice. For one thing, the EU will still have huge problems among its member states refusing to take up quotas of asylum seekers.
Nevertheless, what may be deemed certain is the forcible “shipping back” – as European Council President Donald Tusk put it – of refugees from Greece to Turkey. “The days of irregular migration to Europe are over,”said Tusk with a tone of relief following the Brussels summit.
In that grim task of hauling back beleaguered families, the NATO military alliance is to take the lead. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the alliance was increasing its naval presence in the Aegean Sea to intercept refugee boats.
The deal thus smacks of an emergency measure where supposed lofty EU principles are being thrown overboard.
EU leaders were increasingly desperate to halt the flow of migrants and this is the outcome. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was under particular pressure to stem the human tide following her erstwhile “open door” policy.
The refugee pathway into Europe has thus been blockaded with this latest EU-Turkish deal, even though there are serious ethical and legal implications over such a drastic measure. Under EU law, all refugees have the right to seek asylum. That is no longer guaranteed, but what is guaranteed is that any refugee boat intercepted in the Aegean will be forced back to Turkey by NATO warships. That is a signal escalation of raw power over humanitarian rights.
The irony of all this is bitter. Only last week, NATO leaders were accusing Russia of “weaponizing Syrian refugees” for alleged political objectives to do with undermining the European Union. That preposterous contention is not worth dignifying with closer examination.
Much closer to reality though is that NATO member Turkey is the party that has weaponized refugees. Erdogan’s state has played a prominent role in inciting the five-year war in Syria for regime change in Damascus. The war is in danger of dragging on even further given Turkey’s ongoing role in illegally supplying weapons and insurgents into Syria. That is the background to why nearly three million Syrian refugees have ended up in Turkey and for why Europe has incurred the destabilizing influx of migrants.
As Syrian President Bashar Assad said recently, Europe’s refugee crisis would be quickly solved if the covert war on his country was stopped. That is achievable if European powers clamped down on Turkey and Saudi Arabia sending weapons and mercenaries into Syria.
But instead, the EU overlords award the Erdogan regime with $6.6 billion while at the same time brutalizing human rights; and thereby ensuring that the whole problem is postponed for a much bigger eventuality.
_____
Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV.
handelsblatt
Turkey Raises the Stakes on Refugees
By Thomas Ludwig and John Blau
08 Mar. 2016
Turkey is using the refugee crisis to bargain its way into the European Union on its own terms. The country is forcing E.U. leaders to make a tough decision – to let in refugees or the Turks. It’s high noon in the decades-long dispute.
continued...
by kool maudit » Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:02 am
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:58 am
UKRAINE AND TURKEY LAUNCH JOINT NAVAL DRILL AMID STAND-OFFS WITH RUSSIA
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV ON 3/8/16 AT 6:32 PM
A soldier stands guard on the Turkish boat TCG Turgutreis in the port of Varna, March 9, 2015.
NATO countries and Ukraine have carried out multiple drills around the Black Sea since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
SASA KAVIC/REUTERS
WORLDRUSSIA TURKEY RELATIONSUKRAINE CONFLICT
Ukraine and Turkey’s navies launched a joint military exercise on Monday, as Kiev and Ankara continue to grow closer in the face of their respective stand-offs with Russia.
Ukraine’s relations with Russia have plummeted since Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to annex Crimea in 2014 and Russian-backed fighters moved in on eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Turkey had been complaining of repeated violations of its airspace by Russian military jets in Syria before it shot one down in November 2015, triggering a very public spat with the Kremlin.
According to a Facebook post by Ukraine’s Navy, Ukraine and Turkey sent two frigates and a degaussing vessel into the Sea of Marmara on Monday to practice tactical maneuvering, anti-aircraft combat and communication.
“In accordance with the plan for joint activities between the Ukrainian Navy and the Navy of the Republic of Turkey, joint base training to prepare Ukrainian crews at Turkey’s naval facilities is also scheduled,” the statement added.
Last month, Ukrainian Member of Parliament Mustafa Dzhemilev said he had opened discussions with Turkey about potentially receiving arms from the NATO member.
And before that, at the end of January, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin met his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul, where he told local newspaper the Daily Sabah that military cooperation with Turkey is something he was “definitely” interested in.
Klimkin’s statement came less than a week after a meeting between Ukraine’s national security and defense secretary Oleksandr Turchynov and Turkey’s Head of the Secretariat for Defense Industries Іsmail Demir, where the two agreed that it is important to “unite the capabilities of [their] countries.”
Turkish border guards shooting Syrian refugees ‘daily’ – Amnesty Intl
Published time: 8 Mar, 2016 07:08
Turkish guards routinely shoot at Syrian refugees stranded at the border, a researcher at Amnesty International has told RT, adding that the number of people being shot has recently spiked. According to Andrew Gardner, these cases are far from being isolated.
“There have been many reports of incidents on the border. We collected information on this as early as 2014, when we received many reports of people being shot when they were trying to cross the border irregularly,” Gardner said.
He added that the current situation in war-torn Syria has led to a spike in the number of migrants being assaulted by Turkish border guards.
“Now, the information we received via Syria doctors is that there are reports of two or three people being shot every day trying to cross the border irregularly,” he said.
The researcher also stated that the plight of refugees in Syria has driven many of them into the “hands of smugglers,” or forced them to cross the border at night. According to Gardner, Turkish guards fire shots at refugees based on what they say are safety measures.
“What the Turkish parties have told us is that they don’t know who these people are, that people could be members of armed groups, they could be smugglers,” he said.
Gardner added that the only way to resolve the problem of the migrant flow was to make legal crossing points for refugees on the border with Turkey, and said Ankara “should not have to hold the responsibility for hosting refugees alone.” To alleviate the issue, the researcher urged EU members to accept bigger migrant quotas and advised Russia to accept more refugees from neighboring countries.
Late on Monday, Turkey and the EU struck a “game-changing” deal on resolving the refugee crisis in Europe. EU leaders agreed in principle to an Ankara-proposed plan to deport illegal migrants from Greece to Turkey while resettling the same number of Syrian refugees in the EU. In return, EU leaders promised Ankara an additional €3 billion (US$3.3 billion), hinting that further funding, as well as a speedy decision on a visa-free regime, could be expected. Ankara was reminded, however, that it would have to observe all 72 requirements to enjoy such a regime.
Turkey has stepped up its border security amid pressure from the US, following the November terror attacks in Paris. The US urged Ankara to close its border with Syria to halt the number of fighters seeking to join terrorist groups fighting there.
Damascus has accused Ankara of facilitating the cross-border movement of jihadists, while Moscow has directly accused the family of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of backing the illegal oil trade with Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) that involves Syrian and Iraqi oil being smuggling across the Turkish border.
Turkey is said to be hosting more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees.
E.U. Woos Turkey for Refugee Help, Ignoring Rights Crackdown
By TIM ARANGO and CEYLAN YEGINSUMARCH 8, 2016
Demonstrators were hit by tear gas in front of the offices of the Turkish daily newspaper Zaman in Istanbul on Saturday. The authorities raided the newspaper. Credit Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
ISTANBUL — The contrast was jarring: Just days after the police broke into the offices of an opposition newspaper using tear gas and water cannon, Turkey’s prime minister was greeted in Brussels with offers of billions in aid, visa-free travel for Turks in Europe and renewed prospects for joining the European Union.
The juxtaposition highlighted the conundrum Europe faces as it seeks solutions to its worst refugee crisis since World War II. To win Turkey’s desperately needed assistance in stemming the flow of migrants to the Continent, European officials seem prepared to ignore what critics say is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s steady march toward authoritarianism.
It is a moment of European weakness that the Turkish leadership seems keen to capitalize on. As Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu arrived in Brussels this week he upped the ante, asking for more financial aid than was previously negotiated and demanding visa-free travel by June, while offering to take back some migrants who have crossed into Europe.
The Turkish offer was hailed as a “breakthrough” Tuesday by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, spoke about a “common understanding” between Europe and Turkey. They said they hoped to work out the details at a summit meeting on March 17 and 18.
Yet criticism of Turkey’s media crackdown was mild, with President François Hollande of France saying, “cooperation with Turkey doesn’t mean we should not be extremely vigilant about press freedom.”
The refugee crisis — more than a million people fleeing war and hardship in the Middle East and beyond have landed on Europe’s shores — has significantly shifted the balance of power between Turkey and Europe. Membership in the European Union was once seen as a carrot to induce Turkey to push through democratic reforms. Now it is offered as an enticement for Turkish help contain the flow of refugees, with Europe, critics say, choosing to set aside its values to secure Turkish cooperation.
“More rights and freedoms for people in Turkey has been the reason why I supported accession,” said Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament. But nowadays, she said, “we see the trading away of principles in the mere hope of solutions to Europe’s own challenges in dealing with asylum seekers and migrants.”
In addition to the media crackdown, critics have been concerned by the renewed fighting in Turkey’s southeast between the army and Kurdish insurgents. They say Europe should do more to push the two sides to return to peace talks.
Selahattin Demirtas, the top Kurdish political leader, whose party for the first time won representation in Parliament in elections last year, said the refugee crisis had led Europe to be largely silent on the renewed war in the southeast. He criticized Europe for bowing to Turkey’s demands, and not taking a tougher line with Ankara on its domestic troubles.
“Blackmailing European countries in turn for the refugee crisis, this is something that the European Union should not close their eyes to,” Mr. Demirtas told reporters on Monday. “The European Union should see this as blackmailing, and this is not in line with European values.”
In previous years the membership talks between Turkey and the European Union led to more democracy within Turkey, analysts say. To put itself more in line with European values, Turkey has abolished the death penalty, legalized education and news broadcasts in the Kurdish language, granted more rights to non-Muslim minorities and curbed the influence of the military over politics. Now that is shifting.
“E.U.-Turkey relations today are merely transactional,” said Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish columnist who sometimes contributes to The New York Times. “We can give you this, you can give us that. You take back some refugees, we give you free visas. It is not about Turkey becoming an E.U.-style liberal democracy.”
Mr. Erdogan, Turkey’s pre-eminent political figure since 2003, once embraced democratic reforms in the hopes of obtaining European Union. membership. But in recent years, as those hopes faded, the early gains were reversed. There was a tough crackdown on government protesters in the summer of 2013. There was a corruption investigation that prompted the government to purge the judiciary and police of perceived enemies. And there has been the erosion of press freedoms.
Now, rather than being the leader of a glittering Islamic democracy, Mr. Erdogan, who remains extremely popular among his religiously conservative base, is often compared to Vladimir V. Putin, the leader of Russia — an authoritarian leader with little regard for freedom of expression.
Underscoring this pivot in Turkey, even as Mr. Davutoglu was meeting with European leaders on Monday, the Turkish authorities, backed by a court order, moved to seize the Cihan News Agency, a news media outlet that like Zaman, which was seized last week, is linked to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a rival of Mr. Erdogan’s who lives in exile.
And as the talks were progressing in Brussels on Monday, Mr. Erdogan, in a speech in Ankara, denounced the Europeans for failing to deliver on their pledge of more than $3 billion of aid for refugees.
“They promised to give us three billion euros, and four months have passed since then,” he said. “The prime minister is in Brussels right now. I hope he returns with that money, the three billion euros.”
Activists, press freedom advocates and Turkish liberals who once counted on the prospect of European Union membership to bring about more democratic reforms have reacted with despair to Europe’s muted criticism of what they see as Turkey’s increasingly anti-democratic behavior.
“Is the E.U. determined to let itself be humiliated?” Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, asked in a statement on Monday. He noted that Turkey’s seizure of the daily newspaper Zaman came last week as Mr. Tusk was on a visit to Ankara.
Svante Cornell, a Turkey analyst and director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, a research organization, said the various crackdowns on the news media “illustrate fully the charade that E.U.-Turkey relations have become."
“The timing of Turkey’s move against Zaman was ostentatious,” he said, “suggesting Erdogan’s government is not even trying to pretend to live up to European norms and values.”
This week Zaman, now overseen by court-appointed trustees, quickly shifted from a steadfast critic of the government to a voice of support, a transformation neatly illustrated by Tuesday’s front page headlines about the summit meeting in Brussels.
“A green light from the E.U. for Turkey’s demands,” one read, while another celebrated that “the path to visa-free travel in Europe opens.”
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 09, 2016 4:22 pm
The Unraveling Of Turkey's Democracy
03/09/2016 02:04 pm ET
Alon Ben-Meir
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Affairs, NYU
Only a few months after Turkey's President Erdogan raided the offices of the Koza Ipek Media Group, the Turkish police assaulted early this month the offices of Feza Publications, which owns two newspapers (including Zaman) and two TV stations, without any warning. There is little else more injurious to any democracy than closing down news outlets and choking off freedom of speech.
To take such an extreme measure based on concocted accusations that such media outlets are aiding terrorism and conspiring against the state is nothing short of scandalous, and shows his fear of public criticism despite his bravado. President Erdogan, however, seems completely dismissive of any potential repercussions, as he was emboldened by his past rampage against the press and jailing of scores of journalists on phony charges with impunity.
Although Erdogan knows well that Turkey is far from being a democratic state, he continues to promote the absurd notion that Turkey is indeed a genuine democracy, stating with his usual twisted flare that "nowhere in the world is the press freer than it is in Turkey."
In fact, Reporters Without Borders' 2015 World Press Freedom Index ranked Turkey 149 out of 180 countries, between Mexico, where journalists are regularly murdered, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is a failed state.
Perhaps Erdogan should be reminded of what truly constitutes a democracy. Freedom of expression represents one of four critical pillars of any democratic form of government, which also includes the election of a representative government, equality before the law, and strict observance of human rights.
Sadly, Erdogan did not stop at repressing freedom of expression in all forms--he regularly chipped away at the other pillars, which is bound to unravel what is left of Turkey's democracy.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees "the right to freedom of opinion and expression;" but as Benjamin Franklin warned, "Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech".
Erdogan was highly admired for his impressive socio-political reforms and significant economic development, which made Turkey the 17th largest economy in the world during his first and much of his second term in office. He could have realized much of his ambitions to make Turkey a recognized regional superpower with rallying support of the public with pride.
He would have been able to do so without destroying the principles of Turkey's foundation as a secular democracy, as was envisioned by its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and offer a real model of a flourishing Islamic democracy to be emulated by much of the Arab and Muslim world.
Sadly, however, Erdogan ignores the fact that his systematic dismantling of Turkey's democratic institutions will have the precise opposite effect by directly torpedoing Turkey's potential as a great power and squandering what the country has to offer.
Time and again, Erdogan demonstrated his lack of tolerance to opposing views and found the press to be a nuisance, as it was generally critical of his Islamic agenda. He understood, as George Orwell aptly put it, "Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose", a freedom which Erdogan is bent on suppressing.
As such, Erdogan has used his strong Islamic credentials to project himself as a pious leader, when in fact he consistently engaged in favoritism, granting huge government contracts to those who supported him and to his family members, irrespective of conflicts of interest and the corruption that ensued as a result.
With a rubber stamp parliament, he has been able to pass any legislation he wished, with the exception of a constitutional amendment that would have granted the President unlimited powers. He subordinated the justice system to his whims and basically became a one man ruler with dictatorial powers, finally doing away with the checks and balances of the government apparatus.
To be sure, Erdogan's appetite for increasing power, harsh treatment of dissidents, religious zeal, and narcissistic predisposition made him feared by much of Turkish society yet admired by others; he is almost unanimously reviled by the international community, but dealt with out of necessity.
The agreement that was achieved on March 7 between Turkey and the EU in connection with Syrian refugees and asylum seekers is one case in point--he made his move to shut down Zaman around the same time, knowing he would not be severely condemned by either the US or the EU for his actions.
The question is that having been in power for nearly 14 years and amassing so much clout, with or without constitutional amendments, will Erdogan take time as President to contemplate Turkey's future--a country that has all the elements and resources to become a great and influential power, especially now that the Middle East is awash in unprecedented turmoil?
Being that Turkey now faces a historic crossroad, the choices Erdogan will make in the months and years to come will have a lasting effect on Turkey's future.
Erdogan will make a grave mistake if he continues to take the Turkish people for granted. The Turks are inventive, industrious, educated, with a long history of achievements, western oriented, and stand for, believe in, and will insist on a democratic way of life.
There are limits as to how much longer the Turkish people will tolerate not only the stifling of free speech, but Erdogan's draconian style of governing before they rise against him.
Erdogan should know that for Turkey to capture its rightful place among the great powers, he must restore all that was lost in the past few years, especially its democratic foundation. Without such democratic principles, Turkey will be further alienated from the Western countries, the bloc to which Turkey should belong, and will be unable to harness its true potential as a Middle Eastern and European power.
Ironically, Erdogan seems to relish the illusion that he will preside over the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 2023, and be remembered as the new "Turkish Father," overshadowing Atatürk.
He desperately wants to restore some of the 'glory' of the Ottoman Empire, forgetting however that the then-Empire crumbled partly under its own weight, and became easy prey for the allied forces in the early 20th century because of corrupt and unscrupulous leaders.
Failing to make the right choice, Erdogan will not be remembered as the father of the new democratic and powerful nation, but as the misguided and ambitious dictator who sacrificed Turkey's potentially glorious future for his religious zeal and burning desire for ever more power.
by seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:06 am
Turkey’s Path to Dictatorship
March 10, 2016
Throttling Turkey’s democracy, President Erdogan seized an opposition newspaper that dared reveal his clandestine arming of jihadists seeking to overthrow neighboring Syria, as Alon Ben-Meir explains.
By Alon Ben-Meir
Only a few months after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raided the offices of the Koza Ipek Media Group, the Turkish police assaulted early this month the offices of Feza Publications, which owns two newspapers (including Zaman) and two TV stations, without any warning.
There is little else more injurious to any democracy than closing down news outlets and choking off freedom of speech. To take such an extreme measure based on concocted accusations that such media outlets are aiding terrorism and conspiring against the state is nothing short of scandalous, and shows his fear of public criticism despite his bravado.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
President Erdogan, however, seems completely dismissive of any potential repercussions, as he was emboldened by his past rampage against the press and jailing of scores of journalists on phony charges with impunity.
Although Erdogan knows well that Turkey is far from being a democratic state, he continues to promote the absurd notion that Turkey is indeed a genuine democracy, stating with his usual twisted flare that “nowhere in the world is the press freer than it is in Turkey.” In fact, Reporters Without Borders’ 2015 World Press Freedom Index ranked Turkey 149 out of 180 countries, between Mexico, where journalists are regularly murdered, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is a failed state.
Perhaps Erdogan should be reminded of what truly constitutes a democracy. Freedom of expression represents one of four critical pillars of any democratic form of government, which also includes the election of a representative government, equality before the law, and strict observance of human rights.
Sadly, Erdogan did not stop at repressing freedom of expression in all forms — he regularly chipped away at the other pillars, which is bound to unravel what is left of Turkey’s democracy.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees “the right to freedom of opinion and expression;” but as Benjamin Franklin warned, “Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech.”
Erdogan was highly admired for his impressive socio-political reforms and significant economic development, which made Turkey the 17th largest economy in the world during his first and much of his second term in office. He could have realized much of his ambitions to make Turkey a recognized regional superpower with rallying support of the public with pride. He would have been able to do so without destroying the principles of Turkey’s foundation as a secular democracy, as was envisioned by its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and offer a real model of a flourishing Islamic democracy to be emulated by much of the Arab and Muslim world.
Sadly, however, Erdogan ignores the fact that his systematic dismantling of Turkey’s democratic institutions will have the precise opposite effect by directly torpedoing Turkey’s potential as a great power and squandering what the country has to offer.
Time and again, Erdogan demonstrated his lack of tolerance to opposing views and found the press to be a nuisance, as it was generally critical of his Islamic agenda. He understood, as George Orwell aptly put it, “Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose,” a freedom which Erdogan is bent on suppressing.
As such, Erdogan has used his strong Islamic credentials to project himself as a pious leader, when in fact he consistently engaged in favoritism, granting huge government contracts to those who supported him and to his family members, irrespective of conflicts of interest and the corruption that ensued as a result.
With a rubber-stamp parliament, he has been able to pass any legislation he wished, with the exception of a constitutional amendment that would have granted the President unlimited powers. He subordinated the justice system to his whims and basically became a one-man ruler with dictatorial powers, finally doing away with the checks and balances of the government apparatus.
To be sure, Erdogan’s appetite for increasing power, harsh treatment of dissidents, religious zeal, and narcissistic predisposition made him feared by much of Turkish society yet admired by others; he is almost unanimously reviled by the international community, but dealt with out of necessity.
The agreement that was achieved on March 7 between Turkey and the European Union in connection with Syrian refugees and asylum seekers is one case in point — he made his move to shut down Zaman around the same time, knowing he would not be severely condemned by either the U.S. or the E.U. for his actions.
The question is that having been in power for nearly 14 years and amassing so much clout, with or without constitutional amendments, will Erdogan take time as President to contemplate Turkey’s future — a country that has all the elements and resources to become a great and influential power, especially now that the Middle East is awash in unprecedented turmoil?
Being that Turkey now faces a historic crossroad, the choices Erdogan will make in the months and years to come will have a lasting effect on Turkey’s future. Erdogan will make a grave mistake if he continues to take the Turkish people for granted. The Turks are inventive, industrious, educated, with a long history of achievements, western-oriented, and stand for, believe in, and will insist on a democratic way of life.
There are limits as to how much longer the Turkish people will tolerate not only the stifling of free speech, but Erdogan’s draconian style of governing before they rise against him. Erdogan should know that for Turkey to capture its rightful place among the great powers, he must restore all that was lost in the past few years, especially its democratic foundation.
Without such democratic principles, Turkey will be further alienated from the Western countries, the bloc to which Turkey should belong, and will be unable to harness its true potential as a Middle Eastern and European power.
Ironically, Erdogan seems to relish the illusion that he will preside over the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 2023, and be remembered as the new “Turkish Father,” overshadowing Atatürk. He desperately wants to restore some of the “glory” of the Ottoman Empire, forgetting however that the then-Empire crumbled partly under its own weight, and became easy prey for the allied forces in the early Twentieth Century because of corrupt and unscrupulous leaders.
Failing to make the right choice, Erdogan will not be remembered as the father of the new democratic and powerful nation, but as the misguided and ambitious dictator who sacrificed Turkey’s potentially glorious future for his religious zeal and burning desire for ever more power.
by conniption » Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:43 pm
RT
Erdogan apologizes to Putin over death of Russian pilot, calls Russia ‘friend & strategic partner’
Published time: 27 Jun, 2016
Russian President Vladimir Putin has received a letter in which his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the death of the pilot who was killed when a Russian jet was downed over the Syrian-Turkish border last November, the Kremlin said.
Erdogan expressed readiness to restore relations with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
The incident involving the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber led to the worst deterioration of Turkish-Russian relations in recent history, with Russia describing it as a “stab in the back.” ...
continued
by Nordic » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:17 pm
conniption » Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:43 pm wrote:RT
Erdogan apologizes to Putin over death of Russian pilot, calls Russia ‘friend & strategic partner’
Published time: 27 Jun, 2016
Russian President Vladimir Putin has received a letter in which his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the death of the pilot who was killed when a Russian jet was downed over the Syrian-Turkish border last November, the Kremlin said.
Erdogan expressed readiness to restore relations with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
The incident involving the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber led to the worst deterioration of Turkish-Russian relations in recent history, with Russia describing it as a “stab in the back.” ...
continued
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 24 guests
