Saturday, February 17, 2018

Has Turkey Gone Rogue?



James Kitfield, Breaking Defense: Has Turkey Gone Rogue?

When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Ankara on Thursday, he will find Turkey unrecognizable as the ostensibly Muslim democracy and close ally that U.S. officials once held up as a model for the Islamic world. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is poised to complete his long transformation of Turkey from a raucous -- if imperfect democracy -- to an autocracy, one ruled by caprice and fear.

The once solid U.S.-Turkish relationship has foundered on miscalculations, grievances, and increasingly divergent worldviews.

When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Ankara on Thursday, he will find Turkey unrecognizable as the ostensibly Muslim democracy and close ally that U.S. officials once held up as a model for the Islamic world. After a controversial constitutional referendum last year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is poised to complete his long transformation of Turkey from a raucous — if imperfect democracy — to an autocracy, one ruled by caprice and fear. Across a wide boulevard from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Tillerson will find that the Turkish parliament building still bears the scars of the 2016 attempted military coup that pro-government media blame squarely on the United States, a narrative that Erdogan has used to whip up nationalism and anti-Americanism to unprecedented levels.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Turkey has been on a different path since the coup-attempt in 2016. And as long as Erdogan remains in power .... and he is going to make sure that he stays in power .... they are going to go down that independent path.

8 comments:

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

Time to get the nukes out. there are still a handful of nukes stationed there. Under Erdogan I have zero trust in Turkey

jac said...

Turkey is not talking anymore about US leaving their positions. The nice example of what happens to the "Syrian-Iran-Russian" militia give it a big help to think twice.

Π2 said...

Old fashioned Ottoman games :

http://www.ekathimerini.com/225880/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/turkish-challenges-in-cypruss-eez

Still going to simmer some more

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Anonymous said...

I think this commantator is lying,Obama try to kill erdogan but no one talk about it ,democracy in Turkey has changed ,that's a fact

proteus said...

@ Anon of February 18, 2018 at 12:30 PM

What "commantator", what democracy , what language are you trying to speak ?

Any references by any chance ?


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