Turkey: the Crossroads for Conflict
One Giant Powder Keg... And The Fuse Is Already Lit by Tyler Durden
I disagree with this guy. Having lived in Turkey, I don't see it that way. The best thing the EU did was keep Turkey out of the EU. Turkey had miles to go for better democracy. The likes of Erdogan and the AKP put Turkey further back on the road to democracy, clearly taking advantage of years of economic growth, building an autocratic leadership, intolerant of dissent.
This is what happens when citizens in a democracy get fat, dumb, and lazy; forgetting where they came from. Despite having a better economy than anyone in the ME, Turkey was in better shape several years ago than all of Europe. Erdogan and his cronies in the AKP used democracy as a way to enrich themselves putting Turkey in the bucket with the rest of the ME--a position the average Turk despises.
The likeness of Ataturk is slowly eroding and the effigies of Erdogan the Pasha are prevailing. Why someone would aspire to be a despot is weird. Erdogan knows that he cannot be a dictator without adopting Islamic tyrannical credos.
Ataturk spent the last years of his life creating an island of democracy, bringing Turkey into the 20th Century, and a powerful ally of democracy if not the West. Erdogan, in less time, built an empire for himself sacrificing democracy for tyranny.
Turks enjoyed nearly a century of free speech, free press, free education, and unhindered enfranchisement. Since the "coup", which arguably was staged by Erdogan, those rights have been crushed.
Erdogan, now 62, came to power in 2002, a year after the formation of the AKP. He spent 11 years as Turkey's prime minister before becoming the country's first directly-elected president in August 2014--supposedly ceremonial with a short term. He and his party immediately began changing the Turkish Constitution. He harbored ambitions of creating an executive presidency, to regain some of the powers relinquished as prime minister, which ended in 2014.
Erdogan share's a very similar path with another world leader. His story breads caution. As an activist among radical Islamic circles, he became a member of Necmettin Erbakan's (Islamic) Welfare Party from 1978 to 1985. He gained political strength becoming mayor of Istanbul from 1994-1998 until the Military ceased power as per the Turkish Constitution because he and his party were becoming non-secular and denouncing Ataturk. In 1998 the Islamic Welfare Party was banned, and Erdogan subsequently jailed for four months for inciting religious hatred. Then, in August 2001, he co-founds the heavily Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a very vocal ally Abdullah Gul.
Since then Turkey has endured his lavish life style, symbolized in the new presidential palace, testimony to his authoritarian tendencies, which are quite overt. Perched on a hill on the outskirts of Ankara, the 1000-room Ak Saray (White Palace) is bigger than the Kremlin, which ended up costing $615 million USD.
All communications in or out of Turkey are monitored by the State. Erdogan has built the Jendarme into his Shutzstaffel (personal bodyguard) exercising powers beyond their Constitution. All the while denuding the military into a thin mesh of isolated commands and functions. He dissolved the military intelligence bureau.
But in 2014 the economy began faltering where economic growth fell to 2.9% and unemployment rose above 10% as per official statistics. Unofficial samples from the former free press put unemployment at 25%, in part due to AKP largesse, crushing non-Islamic businesses, and alienating external businesses. To obscure how badly Turkey was doing economically Erdogan began campaign to blame outsiders for this supposed slump, especially Israel--one country Turkey had very close ties. Erdogan cranked up the movement of refugees into Europe, taking advantage of Greece's bankruptcies. That despite coercing money from international agencies for the refugee crisis.
Turkey is the United State's 35th largest trading partner representing a $20 billion in exports and services. That has changed this week as Erdogan announced a new trade initiative with Russia. Trading with Russia is never a two way street. One despot to another, or should we say in today's PC parlance; a robber baron reaching out to another robber baron.
There's so much more to discuss.
- Matt Caldwell
