Tag Archives: Erdogan

Link: “A Strong Jerusalem, A Strong Palestine” — and a Big Mouth

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

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“A democratic, stable and developed Turkey,” he said, “is a source of power for all Muslims. [A] strong Turkey means a strong Jerusalem, a strong Palestine.”

Unfortunately, Turkey is neither democratic, nor stable — nor developed. The world’s most credible pro-democracy institutions, most notably Freedom House, list Turkey in their democracy indices as either a “not free” or a “country with major democratic deficit.”

http://www.meforum.org/4956/why-hamas-leader-khaled-mashaal-feels-so-at-home – 1/1/2015

NATO – ISIS – Turkey’s Weakened Stance

10 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Regions, Turkey

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Under perhaps the pretext of defending Turkey from ISIS, Turkish Prime Minister, now President Recept Tayyip Erdogan appears to have methodically trounced basic western values in the maintenance of open responsible and responsive governance.

When this past June ISIS took control of Turkey’s embassy in Mosul, Iraq, which site it today uses for its headquarters, and kept hostages, then Prime Minister Erdogan ordered coverage of the matter kept out of the state’s news: whatever was to happen, Turks would not be able to follow it in a free press.

When ISIS then “offered” (or ordered, for this matter also appears dark) ISIS oil in exchange for Turkish cash, it appears then Prime Minister Erdogan accepted the offer (which perhaps he could not refuse, either for defensive purposes or patently offensive ones — i.e., perhaps nothing beats hiding a venal intent behind one’s own hostages).

In the matter of NATO radar defense arrangements in Turkey, then Prime Minister Erdogan whined across months that the same not be used to protect Israel (“the only democracy in the”  yada-yada and once robust trading and defense partner with Turkey).

Finally, and with unmistakable reference to anti-Semitism, now President Erdogan has refused Israel an oil pipeline westward.

Back in May: “At least 10 firms bid for Israel-Turkey gas pipeline: Report.”

Yesterday: “Turkey nixes energy partnerships with Israel.”

While Turkey may wish to look strong as a Muslim-majority state and reliable as a NATO partner, anti-Semitism itself has a reputation as a great deflector of attention away from mediocrity and weakness.

Additional Reference

Turkey’s discomfort with NATO and its pro-Semitic western stance comes through its lax border control, which it is now being asked to address, its battering relationship with the Jewish State, and its perhaps compliant position with the Islamic State — and saying it ain’t so won’t prove it ain’t so as now President Erdogan perhaps walks down both a familiar and increasingly lonely road.  He may feel enlarged, as autocrats do, by the “narcissistic supply” arranged through deflection and cultivated with pandering,  but as that story grows large too in the chaos and disruption it engenders, it never ends well for the host.

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When ISIS took Turkish photojournalist Bunyamin Aygun hostage in 2013, he said the militants repeatedly told him “Turkey is next.” After the first few weeks of his detainment, he was transferred to an ISIS brigade made up of mostly Turks. “They rained curses on Erdogan, and Davutoglu, saying they were ‘infidels,’” Aygun told al-Monitor. “They claimed that if Turkey sealed the border gates that were under IS control they would hit one Turkish village after the other and trigger a civil war inside Turkey.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/nato-coalition-against-isis-turkey-role-mostly-symbolic-1680708 – 9/7/2014.

Since Turkey’s 49 consulate staff and their family members were taken hostage in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on June 11, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has taken all measures to keep the public in the dark on the issue.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/daloglu-mosul-hostage-crisis-erdogan-isis-iraq-turkey.html#ixzz3Cv1ThPsZ – 6/25/2014.

Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), told The Daily Beast he was trying to get an official government comment on reports saying that ISIS was exporting up to 4,000 tons of fuel to Turkey every day and earning $15 million every month from the trade. “I am expecting some answers here,” he said.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/08/is-nato-ally-turkey-tacitly-fueling-the-isis-war-machine.html – 9/8/2014.

“For energy projects to proceed, the human tragedy in Gaza will have to be stopped and Israel will have to instate a permanent peace there with all elements,” Yildiz told reporters in Ankara, referring to the recent counter-terror Operation Protective Edge.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184930#.VBBOQcJdV8E -“Turkey Refuses to Transfer ‘Inhumane’ Israeli Gas to Europe” – 9/9/2014.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/zaman-isis-turkeys-mosul-consulate-headquarter-iraq.html – 7/17/2014

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/turkey-tomb-suleiman-shah-syrian-territory-pretext-incursion.html# – 3/27/2014.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/turkey-syria-borders-smuggling-guns-conflict-kurds-pkk-isis.html##ixzz3Cv7wzwGu – 4/30/2014.

An 18-vehicle convoy was dispatched to the Tomb of Suleiman Shah to rotate the troops and resupply. The convoy entered Syria from the YPG-controlled Kobani and returned via ISIS-controlled Jarablus. A Syrian Kurdish source told Al-Monitor that, as per the accord reached with the officials of the “Kobani canton” who recently visited Turkey, the YPG provided security to the Turkish army convoy while passing through Kurdish-controlled area. According to this source, the convoy was stopped by ISIS in Cadde village, three kilometers [two miles] from the tomb, after it left the Kurdish area. Since official sources kept mum on what transpired at Cadde and along the way, speculation grew.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/turkey-usa-syria-iraq-isis-coalition.html##ixzz3CvAeBuNa – 9/8/2014.

Needless to say, if Obama would find an enthusiastic NATO ally in his quest to construct a coalition to deal with IS, his attitude toward his Turkish counterpart might be different. Yet, Turkey’s reluctance in taking part in the efforts led by the United States against IS is also confirmed by Turkey’s media outlets following the Erdogan-Obama meeting.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/15/us-nato-turkey-israel-idUSBREA0E0NZ20140115 – 1/15/2014.

(Reuters) – Turkey has accepted assurances a planned NATO missile defense system in which it is playing a part is not designed to protect Israel as well, the alliance’s deputy secretary-general said on Wednesday.

Alexander Vershbow said objections by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government had resulted in part from confusion about a Turkish-hosted NATO radar. Ankara had been further assuaged by alliance Patriot anti-missile batteries assigned to protect its territory from Syria.

Related:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-based-nato-radars-israel-protection-in-question.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69424&NewsCatID=483 – 7/22/2014.

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http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/08/04/nato-commander-u-s-radar-turkey-wont-used-help-israel/ – 8/4/2014.

Turkey has opposed Israel’s participation in NATO exercises. Officials said Ankara was abandoning plans to improve relations with Israel.
“Normalization with Israel is a fantasy,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/umut-ozkirimli/stoking-the-fire-antisemi_b_5779302.html – 9/8/2014.

Yet something was different this time around.   Something to do with the intensity and audacity of displays of anti-semitism, and the not so covert official backing they received, which was one of the talking points of the recent meeting between U.S. President Obama and Turkish President Erdoğan who discussed, according to the statement by the NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden “the importance of … combating the scourge of anti-Semitism,” among other things.

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http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703279704575335043894776482 – 6/29/2010.

Brothers in Arms

Some major Israeli arms contracts with Turkey

1997: $632 million order for Israel to outfit Turkish F4E Phantom aircraft with advanced avionics.

1998: $90 million order for Israel to provide AGM-1 and Popeye-1 missiles for the upgraded Phantoms.

2002: $687.5 million deal to upgrade Turkey’s M60-A1 tanks to Israeli Sabra-3 version, the last of which was delivered in April.

2005: $183 million deal to provide 10 Heron drones.

Note: All contracts completed except drones, which are being delivered. Source: Serdar Erdurmaz, Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies

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http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2014/09/10/over-40-states-combine-forces-against-isis – 9/10/2014.

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FTAC – On Turkish Courts Indicting Israeli Military in Relation to the Mavi Marmara Incident

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Psychology

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The “Gaza Boat Show” and Mavi Marmara incident trace back to deeply anti-Semitic and terrorist enthusiasms, and not only should there not have been a “compensation package” — plain political extortion! — drawn from Israel, but this drift in Turkish politics should have been stopped cold by the Turks themselves exactly when and where it started.  God willing, most will understand the only true axis in conflict and conflicted Islamic-majority state politics has to do with the despotic vs the democratic.  What PM Erdogan’s government and courts have done: despotic.  Evil.  

Source of inspiration: Schanzer, Jonathan and Merve Tahiroglu.  “Schanzer and Tahiroglu: When Turkey has problems, Israel always gets the blame.”  National Post, June 3, 2014.

In politics, anti-Semitism has become the signal of the criminal and weak: it’s expressed through disingenuous speech enforced, when it can be, by the tactics of political mafia.  In Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan has been tripped in his tracks a time or two by a passionate Kamalist and otherwise mixed opposition, but when the heat in the streets diminishes, he returns to the comfort of his script.

Much of what I would bring to bear in telegraphic thought has been stabilized on a few BackChannels pages: “Malignant Narcissism“, for example, and there’s another most relevant here: “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation“.

Appeasement fails to appease the needs of such a personality, and, in fact, encourages its development.

Speaking to the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations forum in Vienna on Wednesday, Erdoğan made the following remark: “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become impossible not to see Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”

Shwayder, Maya.  “Erdogan’s Anti-Zionist Comments Draws Criticism From West, But Typical For Turkey These Days.”  International Business Times, March 1, 2013.

Whatever Prime Minister Erdogan may be thinking, and that may include possession of the favor of God as affirmed by Turkish realpolitik, his personality would seem to be asking a fair political question: why stop if not stopped?

Related Reference

In reverse chronological order —

Castillo, Mariano.  “Turkish cops harass CNN reporter on air.”  CNN, May 31, 2014.

Gezi, Kadri.  “Gezi resistance anniversary recalls impact on Turkey.”  Al Monitor, May 29, 2014.

Gursel, Kadri.  “Erdogan’s dictator defense.”  Al Monitor, May 25, 2014.

Watson, Ivan and Alan Duke.  “Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan declares victory after local elections.”  CNN, March 31, 2014.

Fisher, Max.  “Here’s the video of Turkey’s prime minister comparing Zionism to fascism.”  The Washington Post, May 19, 2013;

Ynet News.  “It’s all personal: Op-ed: PM Erdogan’s venomous verbal attacks on Israel do not reflect Turkish people’s opinion of Israel.”  March 3, 2013;

Ynet News.  “Erdogan’s long-term plan: Op-ed: Turkish PM systematically imposing Islamic law; sense of helplessness, rage spreads.”  September 12, 2012.

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Short Note – Malignant Narcissism – From Complaint to Confrontation

05 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, Psychology

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U.S. diplomats report that the Prime Minister gets almost all his information from Islamist-leaning newspapers, ignoring the input of his own ministers. The Turkish military and intelligence services no longer share with him some of their reports. He trusts no one completely, surrounding himself with “an iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors.” Despite Erdogan’s macho behavior, he is reportedly terrified of losing his grip on power.

Sassounian, Harut.  “Despite Lavish Public Praise, U.S. is Deeply Troubled by Erdogan.”  Asbarez, July 2, 2013.

Once armed with a widget like the term “malignant narcissist” to bundle all of the world’s dictators together, or, my favorite (because it’s mine) “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy (FBPS)”, we may reach a point where knowing how such personalities work and the harm they bring to themselves, their gulled peers and supporters, and the world beyond their glorious and tightly controlled bubble full of pleasing mirrors demands some response.

In Egypt, I doubt Morsi & The Brothers got the message, denial and resistance to criticism partially defining this syndrome in personality, but The People of Egypt finally got ahead of what was being done to them and that with a military perhaps equally prescient as regards both cultural and institutional “human factors” and corresponding administrative and management choices and wisdom as regards good leadership well anchored and strong.

Not all autocrats are alike — Putin’s my favorite; Mugabe’s the worst — nor or all military organizations alike in their affection, alignment, and integration with the greater spirit of the people they defend (to keep this parallel, Egypt’s infernal opposite might be Syria’s defense forces whipped on by Maher al-Assad — there hasn’t been much display of affection or regard for noncombatant Syrians on the part of that murderous outfit).

Where people come to know what they are seeing when confronted by a personality exhibiting a dangerous narcissism, then they become responsible for keeping themselves from too easily following the same.

In developing states afflicted with potential or already self-serving “presidents for life”, how to drive this perception of the peacock through the streets with either the language or technologies available becomes a challenge.

It’s not easily done or Zimbabweans would have it done it a long, long time ago.

http://youtu.be/MzxpJMJMfvk

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Erdogan – Turkey : Jobbik – Hungary — Amplifying the Politics of Division

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Politics, Psychology, Regions, Turkey

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The prime minister has repeatedly and constantly defied criticism leveled against the police for brutality against protesters during the Gezi Park unrest, despite the fact that the excessive use of police force during the unrest in the country since May 3 has resulted in the deaths of three protesters and one police officer and the injury of nearly 5,000 people.

Gunes, Erdem. “Two wise men refuse to attend meeting with Turkish Prime Minister because of Gezi unrest.”  Huriyet Daily News, June 25, 2013.

While the world should not mistake accommodation, compassion, compromise, and kindness for weakness, the fear that a part of it may would seem to propel the opposite: the want of an iron fist.

Turks who may read about Prime Minister Erdogan in Huriyet have been delivered the impression of an autocrat, and one may expect further amplification and cleaving along that seam.  On one side: a dangerous nationalism and the rise of a “strong man” in the too familiar vein, the kind that references “the interest rate lobby” without intending to refer to the Chinese (to whom the world’s largest bank belongs); on the other, a more compassionate, comprehending, and more inclusive humanity, the kind that with Moses and the Jews becomes the “mixed multitude” that leaves Pharaoh and abandons him to his fate.

Turks have grown disgruntled over the headstrong prime minister’s increasingly autocratic leadership and the opaque decision making of a powerful centralized state that is unresponsive to the needs of Turkish citizens, especially those outside Erdogan’s nationalist and Islamic coalition.

Phillips, James and Andrew Scarpitta.  “Turkish Protests Undermine Erdogan and His Foreign Policy.”  The Foundry, blog, Heritage Foundation, June 24, 2013.

What Erdogan may represent is not only Erdogan’s problem.

This comes by way of another front, this one European:

After dark, the respectable mask slipped. While a Jobbik official watched, I was slapped in the head by a reveler annoyed that “Jews” were at his festival. He then poured a beer over my head. Although irritating and sticky, it could have been worse —I was in a forest at night surrounded by thousands of nationalists and stalls selling whips and axes.

Whelan, Brian.  “My Week With Hungary’s Far Right.”  Vice, May 2013.

Brian Whelan‘s clip on the Channel4News YouTube page (“The rise of the far-right in Hungary”):

“Jobbik” is “The Movement for a Better Hungary”.  The Wikipedia entry characterizes it this way:

“Jobbik has been described by scholars, different press outlets and its political opponents as fascist,[9] neo-fascist,[10] Neo-Nazi,[11] racist,[12] anti-Semitic,[13] anti-Roma[14] and homophobic.[15] Measured according to its representation in the European Parliament and the National Assembly, it is Hungary’s third largest party.”

Next to that Erdogan’s “Justice and Development Party (AKP)” enjoys on Wikipedia more gentle treatment, but even so, according to Wikipedia, “The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist Virtue Party.”

For compassionate liberals, no more signal than “Islamist Virtue Party” is needed, for it resonates worldwide today with police units formed around “the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice”.  Moreover, in Islamic states, the same signals the room for maneuver given to venal “takfir” — those who accuse others of blasphemy, which in theocracies provides ever the accuser’s gateway to murder, theft, and revenge.

I feel inspired by the video featured on this post — fill in the blanks: “We have an internal problem that is ___________, and an external threat . . . the Jewish invasion . . . We know there is a global Zionist fund controlling the whole world, including the U.S. and the European Union . . .  It is thanks to them that ________ has become a mess since ________.”

It would seem the political imposition of purity standards — nationalist, racist, or religious — pernicious and divisive from any perspective.

In the larger politics and its psychology, growing Hungarian and Turkish nationalism would seem to share similar characteristics: deflection of responsibility (blame it on the “interest rate lobby” and similarly convenient foils; craving for a uniform cast and homogeneous society (please, no freethinkers, liberals, or Gypsies); want of power and strength by way of a demonstrated and punishing will altogether lacking in compassion, empathy, and love (such a monstrous character is what is most demonstrated by the arrest of doctors attending wounded at demonstrations).

Additional Reference

Arango, Tim.  “Turkish Liberals Turn Their Backs on Erdogan.”  The New York Times, June 19, 2013.

Hanley, Ken.  “Op-Ed: Turkish government to investigate doctors who treated protesters.”  Digital Journal, June 17, 2013:

The Turkish Health Ministry demanded a list of all doctors who had treated injured demonstrators. The Turkish Medical Association (TBB) reported the demand.

Nationalism Studies Network

National Movements & Intermediary Structures in Europe

Vogt, Jonas.  “Far-Right Terror in Hungary.”  Vice, June 2012.

Williams, Lonna Lisa.  “Turkish doctors protest by striking.”  Digital Journal, June 17, 2013:

“The doctors were only trying to help the protesters by giving them emergency medical aid in the clinic set up inside the Divan Hotel,” one witness told me. “The police marched right into the five-star hotel and arrested these doctors dressed in white lab coats. They were led off with their hand behind them, handcuffed.”

Erdogan’s Turkey — Behold the Paranoia

23 Sunday Jun 2013

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The Turkish government, however, has suggested that the protests are part of a plot against the country, involving foreign governments and financial institutions.

Earlier this month, Hurriyet quoted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as hinting that Israel was “delighted” with the protests.

The Jerusalem Post.  “Turkey probes ‘foreign links’ to anti-gov’t protests.”  June 23, 2013.

Remember: it is never the narcissist.

Not so surprisingly, I am not the only one latched on to this theme in observation (and, for the record, I am not in touch with anyone else on it either)!

Trust me.

🙂

“Paranoia and police power are never a good combination, but Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have readily embraced both,” writes blogger Jonathan Turley (June 17, 2013) on his eponymous blog (“When Paranoia and Police Power Meet: Erdogan Denounces International Media Conspiracy”).

This next represents the ranting — not really, in fact not at all — of a most diplomatic Turkish journalist, Mustafa Akyol:

Foreign leaders and the news media can help by advising Erdogan to focus on reconciliation and restraint. But they should do this sensitively, so as not to further provoke the quintessential Turkish paranoia that there is always a “foreign finger” behind every social turmoil.

“A Quiet Bit of Advice.”  The New York Times, June 5, 2013.

When the powerful work “behind the curtain” — in the land o’ winks ‘n’ nods, in the smoke filled back rooms, in the quiet words delivered with a handshake and a palm full of money, that sort of thing — the opacity of that governance inspires speculation in the public mind: anything is possible and just about anything slipped into the information stream — the media — may be treated as credible for being so difficult to challenge.

Effects may not be reserved for the public mind only: the same deceptive and disingenuous practices involving mind and mouth may have effects on their practitioners: if they know themselves to have “bent and twisted it some” on the way through their minds and out of their mouths, who else might be duplicitous?

I’ve coined the term “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy (FBPS)” (see “Coins and Terms”) to approach the common autocrat’s messianic ambitions, delusions of grandeur, the want of pleasing mirrors (start with the morning’s newspaper or mention on television), the rejection of criticism, and the abject fear of unknown conspiring others.

The uninformed mind cannot wrestle with itself in regard to FBPS, but the informed one may, for the hazy confrontation with imaginary demons devolves back toward a more clear and clarifying confrontation with one’s self.

The cool headed Mustafa Akyol warms again to the theme a little later in the month of June with an article in Al-Monitor:

Erdogan, wondering why his whole nation does not love him unequivocally for all the great things he has done, soon found the real culprit behind the anger in streets: “foreign powers” and their collaborators such as “the interest (loan) lobby.” The more extensively the foreign media, such as CNN International andThe Economist, covered the protests and criticized the government’s heavy-handed response, the more Erdogan and his followers became convinced about an ill-intended “foreign hand” behind the masses.

Akyol, Mustafa.  “Paranoid Nationalism Changes Hands in Turkey.”  Al-Monitor turkey Pulse, June 20, 2013.

How long before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees himself accurately mirrored in the dissenting domestic press and the comparatively disinterested professional journalism of Big Media worldwide?

If he is lucky, he will see himself more as he really is, his people more as they truly are and aspire to be, and the world itself more as it really is and may become.

Of course, an adjustment like that — one moving from self-aggrandizement and the mania for control to produce it (most often by pandering and slandering through time itself) toward greater appreciation and respect for others plus accommodation, compassion, fairness, and inclusion — may require exceptional courage and insight.

Turkish Unrest — Staggering Denial

23 Sunday Jun 2013

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“The game is the same, the symbols are the same, the banners are the same, Twitter and Facebook are being used the same way, and the international media reacts the same; they are being operated from the same centre.”

President Erdogan as quoted recently by journalist Tom Porter (“Turkey Protests: Fresh Unrest as Police and Protesters Clash,” International Business Times, June 23, 2013).

The above clip, “Turkish Protests: riot police crackdown as thousands of protesters flood . . .” posted to YouTube on June 22, 2013.

While Turkey’s President Erdogan has the majority numbers to do as he may wish with his state, he seems unaware that it has been his own behavior, not a Facebook or Twitter conspiracy, that has inspired a determined Turkish minority resistance to the further erosion of balanced and fair governance.

Erdogan’s aggressive reshaping of the legacy Ataturk military (e.g., “Turkeys Top Four Generals Resign After Erdogan Tension,” Business Week, July 29, 2011), his  mauling of the press (e.g., Gutman, Roy, “Turkey’s journalists say press freedom has declined under Erdogan’s rule,” McClatchy, May 13, 2013), and his unvarnished narcissism coupled with Islamist fervor (e.g., Hacaoglu, Selcan, “Erdogan Fights Ataturk Secularism With Islam Fervor Once Denied”, Bloomberg Businessweek, November 15, 2012) have laid the groundwork, and we may expect amplification and escalation of hostilities between the forces of the modern and the medieval in Turkey’s body politic.

From the Bloomberg piece cited:

“Erdogan in September repeated a vow to boycott Tusiad, the business federation that groups Koc, Sabanci and Turkey’s other biggest companies. His ministers are more likely to show up at meetings hosted by its rival Musiad, a pro-Islamic business group whose members are typically smaller and more likely to be from outside Istanbul.”

Patronage bolsters and controls the economies of every autocratic Muslim state: why should Erdogan’s Turkey prove an exception?

As the malignant narcissists looks out for himself foremost, whips up the adoration of his mob — the more “narcissistic supply” the better the dictator feels about himself — and goes about the nefarious business of seeking to control all on behalf of his own glorification, expect this form of conflict — first, the cleaving of the state into two camps; then action against minority interests, including minority human rights — to broaden and intensify.

Most damning:

Addressing the young people who participated en mass in the Gezi Park protests, Erdoğan said they had all been cheated by the interest rate lobby. “You have been used as soldiers by the interest lobbies in a plot that you could not become aware of,” he said.

Hurriyet Daily News.  “Turkish PM likens the ongoing protest wave in Turkey to Brazil demonstrations.”  June 22, 2013.

What “interest rate lobby” would that be, President Erdogan?

Through the mouth, the strong hand reveals its weak heart.

Turkey – A Fissure Has Opened in the Political Body

18 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Free Speech, Politics, Turkey

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Four protesters and one police officer have been killed during the protests and Turkey’s doctors association said an investigation was underway into the death of a fifth protester who was exposed to tear gas. More than 7,800 people have been injured; six remain in critical condition and 11 people have lost their eyesight after being hit by flying objects.

AP. “Turkey’s Erdogan vows to strengthen police powers as dozens detained in raids.”  The Washington Post, June 18, 2013.

Last week’s unrest, only quelled this week, has left Turkey a divided nation with President Erdogan’s voting majority AKP jubilant in its denial of its impact on all others.  With so many business and political rivals neutralized, generals sacked, and journalists jailed, Erdogan has proven he can muscle up an adoring crowd while his police go about battering and blinding those who dissent.

Here was a bellicose leader who dismissed overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators as “looters” and “terrorists”, who railed against international media for their “disinformation” campaigns, and who criticised volunteer medics for treating injured protesters.

“The big loser (in the crisis), is the prime minister who is fighting for his political survival,” said Cengiz Aktar, a political science professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir university.

ZeeNews.  “Turkey PM risks political fallout after Gezi Park.”  June 18, 2013.

Here in my “Second Row Seat to History”, I am not part of any media conspiracy, government agency, anti-government organization, or strident political or religious movement.

I have only watched the footage.

http://youtu.be/KOgc8E-8L7s

“Unfortunately, we have been witnessing undesired attacks and provocations over the past few days.  We are once again experiencing the traps that were set in the past to threaten governments and create chaotic scenes to pave the way for interventions against democracy.”

Whose past, Mr. Erdogan?

To whose “interventions against democracy” have you referred?

May the reader wrap his mind around the Turkish President’s Orwellian rhetoric.

The open democracies of the other NATO states reject the tyranny of the majority, the state’s suppression of media and of the earnest and responsible journalists on whose mantles rest decency and integrity in reporting, and, every single one of them, deeply rejects the rejection of the popular criticism of ordinary constituents, whether aligned with a majority part or distant from it.

Protesters have accused Erdogan, who has been in power for a decade, of taking Turkey down the road of authoritarian and Islamist rule. Erdogan, who has triumphed with wide electoral majorities, has dismissed the protesters as militants and losers.

Johnson, Glen.  “Protester reported killed in Turkey amid days of unrest.”  The Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2013.

Last week, the Ataturk Society UK reported three dead, 4,785 injured.

President Erdogan’s own ham-handed behaviors in office have inspired the opening of a fissure in Turkey’s body politic, and it will not close.

From the album online, “Heartwarming Images from the Turkish Resistance (created two weeks ago)“.

"Three different ideologies side by side" (photographer unknown).

“Three different ideologies side by side” (photographer unknown).

Two weeks ago?

Has it been that long?

The Wikipedia entry “2013 Protests in Turkey” says it has (initial protest: May 28, 2013).

It feels like forever.