Meanwhile Erdogan is changing the subject by telling Europe to do something about “Islamophobia” before criticizing Turkey’s approach to freedom of the press.
Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan slammed European countries on Friday for criticizing deteriorating press freedom in Turkey and said they should instead try to find a solution for what he said was increasing Islamophobia in the continent.
Turkish police earlier this month raided media outlets close to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of forming a ‘parallel state’ to undermine his rule and orchestrating a graft scandal targeting his inner circle.
The European Union, which Turkey has been seeking to join for decades, said the media raids ran counter to European values, a criticism already dismissed by Erdogan. On Friday, the President repeated his discontent, with a visibly harsher tone.
Well, maybe he’s embarrassed about that schoolboy arrested for saying something harsh about him.
“We are not Europe’s scapegoat,” Erdogan told a symposium of civil servants. “We are definitely not a country that Europe can point its finger at and scold. Instead of criticizing us, Europe should find a solution to increasing racism and Islamophobia.”
Meh. “Europe” isn’t a thing that can point a finger or scold anyway, but if it were…it could do that. The EU can do that, the ECHR can do that, heads of state can do that, journalists can do that, rights activists can do that. Actually, anybody at all can do that…unless they’re actually in Turkey, of course.
He would do well as a republican in the US. perhaps he and Ted Cruz were separated at birth
Fuck Erdogan.
Let me savor my freedom.
Erdogan is a typical US puppet – starts off with a thin veneer of pretend democracy (like US politicians) and ends up an authoritarian dictator.
“Turkey is a model democracy” – HA!
“Turkey – a model democracy for the Arab World” – I guess now that Hosni Mubarak is out of power, yeah. And by “model democracy” they mean rigged elections, controlled political speech, and the occasional genocidal displacement of undesirable locals and repression of political dissent.
Fuck Erdogan the US puppet.
Erdogan, like a typical dictator, has built himself his own personal Versailles:
http://time.com/3557500/turkey-erdogan-palace/
Actually, it’s not really like Versailles: It’s 4 times bigger
US puppet? What the fuck are you talking about, Marcus Ranum? (if it sounds like a conspiracy nut and tastes like a conspiracy nut.. )
What the fuck are you talking about, Marcus Ranum?
What? Turkey’s been a long-time US “ally” and hosts a lot of US military assets. Do you think that would happen if it was being run by someone “unacceptable”? Fuck, you can tell which muslim leaders are acceptable because the US isn’t talking overtly about “regime change” …
Seriously, why do you think Erdogan isn’t in the US’ pocket? Wait, do you think Mubarak was independent, too?
Sorry, Marcus, I’m going to go with Occam’s Razor on this one. Namely, that the simplest explanation is that we aren’t really capable of exerting much influence on the internal politics of other countries, even fairly close allies.
Furthermore, I’d argue that most of the time when we do try to do so, it turns out badly.
I mean, yeah, I guess you could say that he isn’t “unacceptable” to us, in the sense that he isn’t calling for an end to all ties with the west, and we aren’t calling for regime change. If that makes him a “puppet” then the term has an awfully broad definition.
Marcus @2
“Fuck Erdogan the US puppet”
Yeah man I completely agree. Not like those wimpy republicans who only think the brown people should be guided by ‘mericans, but you got it right on the nail. Its not like brown people can ever make decisions on foreign or domestic policy by considering their own interests, only ‘mericans have that erm, whats the word, “exceptional” power.
USA! USA! USA!