Merkel said yes and should be headed for a deserved retirement. Rather hard to object to Erdogan's assaults on free speech in his own interest when He can get the EU to do the same for him.
Would she have agreed is Bush had asked>
Inclusiveness when one side has an army of that size, foreign backed oligarchs, and all sorts of economic advantages built over decades beginning with starvation deaths and transferred populations to Russify the area. Yeah, that''s a a place to start.
Twitter and YouTube -- the latter of which is still banned -- were platforms for revelations of corruption, of plotting for Syrian involvement, of documents about the Reyhanli bombing which everyone except the Erdogan government is quite aware was by Islamists, most likely from one of the local AQ flavors.
The news sites of his old buddy Gulen were under massive attack most of the week. Cihanhaber, the news site with the best election results was blocked all day Sunday and Monday; Today's Zaman was down most of the week. Interestingly, it was down at points when the Turkish site was up.
It was also blocked because he could do so. It's part of being authoritarian. And, as he would tell you, doing things like this and having the courts block recounts unless your party is ordering them is as close as Turkey can come to democracy because of the interference of the US. In fact, he says variations of that claim every damned day. it's popular with ideologues left and right.
But there is at least one-party democracy, as AKP lost in Agri and the courts have declaredfor a revote there along with the big FUI from AKP judges to the CHP for Ankara and Antalya.
Anyone attempting to fathom what passes for thought within the Ak Partisi might begin with this gem from Turkey's EU Minster, Egemen Baris:
“Hours-long broadcasting that is even not interrupted by commercials has damaged Turkey’s image,” he said.
“But these long broadcasts surely have a financial reason, and this will be revealed. International channels such as BBC and CNN never do such broadcasting without any advertisement. Somebody somehow financed these broadcasts. Like our prime minister said, the losses of the interest rate lobby due to low interest rates have exceeded $650 billion in Turkey,” he said, adding that this was a result of the government’s dedication. “This drives them crazy and they are doing everything to disturb the calm in our country and win back their losses.”
Can't say I'm happy to be doing this, but since the 31st most of my "free" time has been spent tracking news reports and reports from many friends/former students in Turkey, spreading what I learn from them and sharing with them what doesn't get reported there, or what they're too busy dodging the police to find out.
What I neglected to mention is:
The Jandarma (Gendarmerie), a branch of the ARMED FORCES, has been mobilized in Istanbul. This is the same branch that has been most active against the PKK. This has been reported with photos by Hurriyet Daily News.
Merkel said yes and should be headed for a deserved retirement. Rather hard to object to Erdogan's assaults on free speech in his own interest when He can get the EU to do the same for him.
Would she have agreed is Bush had asked>
Inclusiveness when one side has an army of that size, foreign backed oligarchs, and all sorts of economic advantages built over decades beginning with starvation deaths and transferred populations to Russify the area. Yeah, that''s a a place to start.
Twitter and YouTube -- the latter of which is still banned -- were platforms for revelations of corruption, of plotting for Syrian involvement, of documents about the Reyhanli bombing which everyone except the Erdogan government is quite aware was by Islamists, most likely from one of the local AQ flavors.
The news sites of his old buddy Gulen were under massive attack most of the week. Cihanhaber, the news site with the best election results was blocked all day Sunday and Monday; Today's Zaman was down most of the week. Interestingly, it was down at points when the Turkish site was up.
It was also blocked because he could do so. It's part of being authoritarian. And, as he would tell you, doing things like this and having the courts block recounts unless your party is ordering them is as close as Turkey can come to democracy because of the interference of the US. In fact, he says variations of that claim every damned day. it's popular with ideologues left and right.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/04/06/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
Excellent article by Sy Hirsch on both US and Turkish exploitation of the something-gas-from-somewhere attack in Syria a year ago: a link that shouldn't be buried in the comments here!
But there is at least one-party democracy, as AKP lost in Agri and the courts have declaredfor a revote there along with the big FUI from AKP judges to the CHP for Ankara and Antalya.
Anyone attempting to fathom what passes for thought within the Ak Partisi might begin with this gem from Turkey's EU Minster, Egemen Baris:
“Hours-long broadcasting that is even not interrupted by commercials has damaged Turkey’s image,” he said.
“But these long broadcasts surely have a financial reason, and this will be revealed. International channels such as BBC and CNN never do such broadcasting without any advertisement. Somebody somehow financed these broadcasts. Like our prime minister said, the losses of the interest rate lobby due to low interest rates have exceeded $650 billion in Turkey,” he said, adding that this was a result of the government’s dedication. “This drives them crazy and they are doing everything to disturb the calm in our country and win back their losses.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/police-to-consider-protesters-in-istanbuls-taksim-square-terror-organization-members-minister.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48875&NewsCatID=338
One begins to sense that what we see in Turkey is what a Bachmann-Palin US would be.
Can't say I'm happy to be doing this, but since the 31st most of my "free" time has been spent tracking news reports and reports from many friends/former students in Turkey, spreading what I learn from them and sharing with them what doesn't get reported there, or what they're too busy dodging the police to find out.
What I neglected to mention is:
The Jandarma (Gendarmerie), a branch of the ARMED FORCES, has been mobilized in Istanbul. This is the same branch that has been most active against the PKK. This has been reported with photos by Hurriyet Daily News.