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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; akp</title>
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		<title>The Real War on Women</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/the-real-war-on-women-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-real-war-on-women-2</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/the-real-war-on-women-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:20:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sharia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War on Women]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246515</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Their oppression under Islam intensifies.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/th.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-246566" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/th.jpg" alt="th" width="300" height="203" /></a>It’s been a busy week for the oppression of women under Islam.</p>
<p>A day or two before Americans sat down to turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan – President Obama’s best friend in the Middle East, a man who has made it <a href="http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/09/there-is-no-moderate-islam.html">abundantly clear</a> how he feels about moderate Islam and who has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/turkey-women-laugh_n_5630416.html">warned</a> that women shouldn’t laugh in public – further endeared himself to feminists everywhere at a summit hosted by an Istanbul-based women’s group when he <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-women/">declared</a> that a woman cannot do every job that a man can do because “it is against her delicate nature.” He dug the hole deeper for himself by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkish-president-equality-between-men-and-women-is-against-nature-9879993.html">claiming</a> that Islam dictated motherhood to be the primary role of women. However, he insisted that his government has always supported equal rights for women and always would.</p>
<p>If that’s true, then perhaps his government could turn its attention to the <a href="http://m.clarionproject.org/news/turkey-epidemic-murders-women-seeking-divorce">epidemic</a> of honor murders being committed against Turkish women, many of whom were murdered for seeking to divorce their husbands. Last month in Istanbul, a young mother in the middle of divorce proceedings was <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/woman-murdered-by-husband-in-istanbul-.aspx?PageID=238&amp;NID=73418&amp;NewsCatID=341">stabbed to death </a>by her husband in front of their child. Her murder is the latest of 287 cases documented by a Turkish human rights and advocacy group known as “We Will Stop Women Murders.”</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/turkish-women-divorce_n_6133470.html">reported by <em>Huffington Post</em></a>, the numbers are up from 238 last year, including the slaying of a 30-year old mother of two seeking a divorce. Her abusive husband simply walked into the hair salon where she worked and stabbed her to death without a word. This was after having abused her, forcing a miscarriage, and holding her hostage in their home.</p>
<p>Despite its modern reputation, Turkey has some of the highest levels of violence against women in Europe (as well as some of the lowest levels of <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/eu-urges-members-to-stop-stalling-with-turkey-1412764978">female participation in politics</a> and education). Rights activists claim that violence against women has skyrocketed since 2003 when the Islamist AKP party came into power. According to the Turkish Ministry of Justice, from 2003 until 2010, there was a 1,400 percent increase in the number of murders of women.</p>
<p>“The AKP government came under harsh criticism after the release of this information,” <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/turkeywomenmurder.html">says Pinar Tremblay</a>, a Turkish journalist. “So in a last-ditch effort to save its reputation, [after 2010] it started altering the numbers.” The government simply did not report on thousands of women who were murdered, Tremblay says.</p>
<p>She puts forth three reasons why have the numbers increased so dramatically. First, the value of women in Turkish society has always been low, but it has sunk even lower in the ten years under the AKP. Second is the notion of honor; Turkish society traditionally blames the woman for a variety of offenses to honor such as seeking a divorce, and the harm done to a man’s reputation is considered a partial or complete justification for murder. As the Freedom Center’s own Robert Spencer <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/09/does-islam-justify-honor-killings">writes</a>, “No passage in the Koran discusses honor killings, but Muslim clerics justify them and secular Muslims either do not punish them or pass laws to mitigate punishment for them. With this, Muslims make honor killings a part of Islam.”</p>
<p>The third reason is leniency in punishment for honor violence. “If the murderer behaves properly, he can receive amnesty in a year or two,” says Tremblay. “This leniency feeds from the fact that a woman’s life is worthless in Turkey and encourages other murderers. Indeed, there have been police reports that perpetrators have Googled possible punishments they might receive before killing their woman,” she added.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in India, TV presenter and actress Gauhar Khan was <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/12/01/tv-presenter-assaulted-for-showing-to-much-skin-report-says/?intcmp=features">assaulted</a> last week by an audience member who thought her clothing bared too much skin. “Being a Muslim woman, she should not have worn such a short dress,” the man <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/horrified-tv-presenter-attacked-live-4726226">reportedly said</a> when arrested for assault.</p>
<p>But Khan’s slap on the cheek was a slap on the wrist compared to Bollywood actress Veena Malik, who was <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/pakistan-sentences-bollywood-actress-to-26-years-in-prison-for-marriage-scene-depicting-the-prophet-muhammads-daughter-130370/"><span><span><span>sentenced</span></span></span></a><span><span> to 26 years in prison for blasphemy by Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court for appearing in a televised wedding scene based on the marriage of the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s daughter. Depictions of Muhammad are considered blasphemous under Islam. Malik has been a target of Islamic fundamentalists ever since a 2011 <span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-MyoBmGF_g"><span><span>video interview</span></span></a></span> in which she boldly lashed out at a mufti’s disapproval of her un-Islamic dress and behavior.<span> </span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>The </span></span></span>court also convicted Malik’s husband and the host of the show which aired the offending scene. Both were sentenced to 26 years in jail as well, and all three will have to pay an additional fine of nearly $50,000, surrender their passports and sell their properties. “The malicious acts of the proclaimed offenders ignited the sentiments of all the Muslims of the country,” the court order read, “and hurt their feelings, which cannot be taken lightly and there is need to strictly curb such tendency.” </span></span></p>
<p>Such mistreatment of women isn’t limited to Islamic territories. In England (although some could argue that England itself is now an Islamic territory), news broke last week that thirteen Somali men were <a href="https://bbc1.azurewebsites.net/news/uk-england-bristol-30095960">convicted</a> of a string of child sex abuse crimes in Bristol, and one of the convicted told the court that sharing girls for sex “was part of Somali culture” and “a religious requirement.” To <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/11/uk-muslim-rape-gang-member-says-raping-girls-a-religious-requirement">quote</a> Spencer again, “The savage exploitation of girls and young women is, unfortunately, a cross-cultural phenomenon, but only in Islamic law does it carry divine sanction”:</p>
<blockquote><p>According to Islamic law, Muslim men can take “captives of the right hand” (Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 33:50). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war” (33:50). 4:3 and 4:24 extend this privilege to Muslim men in general. The rape of captive women is also sanctioned in Islamic tradition.</p></blockquote>
<p>The rape of captive women is the ongoing nightmare currently faced by the thousands of Kurdish and Yazidi women <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=21795">enslaved</a> by the Islamic State. The practice “accords with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality,” as Spencer <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/11/uk-muslim-rape-gang-member-says-raping-girls-a-religious-requirement">noted</a> in relation to a female Kuwaiti politician who <a href="http://www.translatingjihad.com/2011/06/video-kuwaiti-activist-i-hope-that.html">spoke out</a> in favor of the sexual slavery of non-Muslim women.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the Western media, the focus on the oppression of women is reserved for such idiocy as the “unattainable” <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/30/disney-princess-real-waistline_n_6076634.html">waistlines on Disney princesses</a>. Now that’s a <em>real</em> war on women.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss Shillman Journalism Fellow <strong>Mark Tapson</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing<strong> Fighting the Culture War</strong>:</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/v5gR4E5UPB8" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf"><strong>Subscribe</strong></a><strong> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <em>The Glazov Gang</em>, and </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>LIKE</strong></a><strong> it on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang"><strong>Facebook.</strong></a></p>
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		<title>Turkey&#8217;s Islamist Deputy Prime Minister Warns Women Not to Laugh in Public</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-deputy-prime-minister-warns-women-not-to-laugh-in-public/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkeys-islamist-deputy-prime-minister-warns-women-not-to-laugh-in-public</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-deputy-prime-minister-warns-women-not-to-laugh-in-public/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Jul 2014 16:07:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=237340</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The murder rate for women in Turkey increased 1400%]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Turkey-Protest_Horo7-e1370354962545-635x357.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-237346" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Turkey-Protest_Horo7-e1370354962545-635x357-450x252.jpg" alt="Turkey-Protest_Horo7-e1370354962545-635x357" width="450" height="252" /></a></p>
<p>Under Erdogan&#8217;s Islamist AKP thugs, the murder rate for women in Turkey <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/turkeys-murder-rate-of-women-skyrockets-117093538/170517.html">increased an unprecedented 1400%</a>.</p>
<p>Now one of Erdogan&#8217;s boys <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/turkey-women-shall-not-laugh-public-says-erdogans-deputy-1458847">has some orders for women</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Women should not laugh in public in Turkey, the Deputy Prime Minister has said in a speech on “moral corruption” in the country.</p>
<p>Bülent Arınç used a meeting for Eid al-Fitr on Monday to condemn perceived moral regression, consumerism and even excessive mobile phone use.</p>
<p>&#8220;She will not laugh in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness,” Mr Arınç said.</p>
<p>He called for Turkish people to rediscover the Koran and stop moral regression.</p>
<p>Targeting women once more, Arınç said women talk about unnecessary things on the phone.</p>
<p>“Women give each other meal recipes while speaking on the mobile phone. ‘What else is going on?’ ‘What happened to Ayşe’s daughter?’ ‘When is the wedding?’</p></blockquote>
<p>Unlike AKP Deputy PMs who insist on babbling about what women talk about on the phone.</p>
<blockquote><p>Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who is running against the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in August’s presidential elections, took to Twitter to argue against Mr Arınç‘s statement.</p>
<p>Turkey needed women to laugh, he said, and the country needs to hear laughter more than anything.</p></blockquote>
<p>Also it needs Erdogan and his AKP thugs in the prison that they put so many of their political opponents.</p>
<p>Turkish women meanwhile responded to the Deputy Prime Minister <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/photos-turkish-women-in-laughing-protest-in-spite-of-deputy-pm.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=69763&amp;NewsCatID=339">with a social media protest of themselves</a> laughing using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/direnkahkaha?src=tren">the #direnkahkaha resist</a> and laugh hashtag.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/article-2579241-1C3B497200000578-73_964x640.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-237347" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/article-2579241-1C3B497200000578-73_964x640-450x298.jpg" alt="article-2579241-1C3B497200000578-73_964x640" width="450" height="298" /></a></p>
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		<title>&#8220;We Came Here to Die with You&#8221;: Islamists Chant in Support of Corrupt Turkish Dictator</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/we-came-here-to-die-with-you-islamists-chant-in-support-of-corrupt-turkish-dictator/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=we-came-here-to-die-with-you-islamists-chant-in-support-of-corrupt-turkish-dictator</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Feb 2014 14:23:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=219709</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["My advice to you is either flee the country, take your helicopter, or resign."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/anti_erdogan_protest_in_New_York.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-219710" alt="anti_erdogan_protest_in_New_York" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/anti_erdogan_protest_in_New_York.jpg" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>If the tape that was released is genuine, then it may be the silver bullet that takes down Turkey&#8217;s Islamist overlord and terrorist supporter Erdogan. The Gulen Movement was always alleged to have had a rich trope of blackmail material. And now that the Gulen Movement has turned on Erdogan, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/turkey-erdogan-idUSL6N0LT48U20140225">it does appear to be paying out</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>The main opposition Republican People&#8217;s Party (CHP) played the entire recording at a parliamentary group meeting with the alleged words of Erdogan and his son displayed on a screen behind leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu head Kemal Kilicdaroglu.</p>
<p>The recording is purportedly of Erdogan and his son Bilal discussing how to reduce the funds to &#8220;zero&#8221; by distributing them among several businessmen. At one point, the voice supposedly of Bilal says some 30 million euros ($40 million) remain to be disposed of.</p>
<p>Names of two businessmen were also mentioned.</p>
<p>The tapes stirred a virtual uproar on Twitter and turned an Ankara protest against the opening of a highway into an anti-government demonstration. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred people, mainly students who chanted &#8220;Government resign&#8221; and &#8220;Thief Tayyip Erdogan&#8221;. There were similar scenes in Istanbul&#8217;s Kadikoy neighbourhood.</p>
<p>Turkey&#8217;s Prime Minister accused political enemies of hacking encrypted state communications to fake a phone conversation suggesting he warned his son to hide large sums of money before police raids in a graft inquiry that reached into government.</p>
<p>The head of the main parliamentary opposition insisted the conversation was genuine, telling Erdogan: &#8220;My advice to you is either flee the country, take your helicopter, or resign.&#8221;</p>
<p>Supporters of Erdogan, locked in a power struggle with Gulen whom he accuses of contriving a graft scandal to topple him, chanted &#8220;Tayyip, we came here to die with you.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Erdogan controls the media and as in Egypt, this is a context between the illiterate backward followers of the Islamists and a more modern middle and upper class.</p>
<p>Unlike Morsi, Erdogan had a long time to get his hooks into Turkey and his supporters are making it clear that they won&#8217;t accept defeat, but at the same time Erdogan has to be nervous about putting his fate in the hands of the police, who have begun to turn on him due to their ties to the Gulen Movement, and the military, which he has locked up on fraudulent Deep State conspiracy charges.</p>
<p>This site claims to offer<a href="http://erdogansdollars.blogspot.se/2014/02/how-erdogan-pm-of-turkey-asked-his-son.html"> a transcript of the Erdogan tape&#8217;s</a> contents.</p>
<blockquote><p>The alleged tapes of Prime Minister on Dec 17, the day the comprehensive graft operation began. It is about the 1 billion USD that PM allegedly hid in several relative&#8217;s homes.</p>
<p>Dec 17, 2013 08:02 a.m.</p>
<p>RTE: Are you home son?<br />
Bilal E(son): Yes father<br />
RTE:  Now! This morning [they] made an operation. <a href="http://www.agaoglu.com.tr/" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Ali Agaoglu</a>, <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-334277-87-billion-euros-in-suspicious-transfers-from-iran.html" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Reza Zerrab</a>, <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/erdogan-bayraktar-corruption-resignation-gulen-chp.html#" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Erdogan&#8217;s [Bayraktar-ex minister]</a> son, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25514579" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Zafer&#8217;s [Caglayan – ex-minister]</a> son, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25514579" rel=" noreferrer">Muammer&#8217;s [Guler – ex-minister]</a> son, etc.. All their houses are being searched now.<br />
BE: Tell again, daddy<br />
RTE: I&#8217;m saying that Muammer&#8217;s son, Zafer&#8217;s son, Erdogan&#8217;s son, Ali Agaoglu, Reza Zerrab etc they are searching the houses of 18 people under a big corruption operation thing.<br />
BE: yes<br />
RTE: OK? Now, what I say is, you take everything that you have in the house out. OK?<br />
BE: What can I have on me dad! There is your money in the safe<br />
RTE: That&#8217;s what I am saying. Now, I am sending your sister. OK?<br />
BE: You are sending who?<br />
RTE: Your sister, I&#8217;m saying.<br />
BE: Eh, OK<br />
RTE: Then,&#8230; She has that information, OK. Talk with your big brother<br />
BE: Yes<br />
RTE: On him,,, Let&#8217;s do&#8230;, talk with your uncle too, he should also take out, also talk to your  [maternal] uncle, he should also&#8230;<br />
BE: What should we do with these daddy, where should we put them?<br />
RTE: To specific places, to some specific places&#8230; do it<br />
(A woman&#8217;s voice on background saying “Berat”)<br />
BE: Berat also has some<br />
RTE: That&#8217;s what I am saying. Now, get together, go get your uncle, I don&#8217;t know if Uncle Ziya has some, OK? Also immediately [inform] your brother <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Turkey/comments/1u07gb/sevim_tan%C3%BCrek_classical_musician_was_killed_by/" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Burak</a> too.<br />
NE: OK father. You mean<a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-339528-chp-takes-erdogans-daughters-villa-conversation-to-parliament.html" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer"> Sumeyye</a>, I mean take out, Sumeyye will tell me where to take them?<br />
RTE: Yes, fine. C&#8217;mon now, do [it] think about yours among yourselves with your uncle, etc<br />
NE: on what to do?<br />
RTE: Yes, yes, let&#8217;s contact fast, until 10.00. Because the issue is&#8230;<br />
NE: OK father<br />
RTE: OK? Keep in touch<br />
NE: OK daddy</p>
<p>2nd call 11.17</p>
<p>NE: Father, We got together with Brother Hasan etc. Brother Berat, my uncle, we are together, thinking about it. Berat has another idea. He says that let&#8217;s give some of it to<a href="http://www.kalyongrup.com/en-us/homepage.aspx" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Faruk [Kalyoncu]</a> for the other “business/thing” so he can process them like the previous ones. Shall we do it, we can solve a big amount with this.<br />
RTE: That may be<br />
NE: OK. For the other part, because we started a business partnership with <a href="http://ortadogugrup.com.tr/en" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Mehmet Gur</a>, we thought of giving it to him saying “keep it, as the projects come you can use from that. This way, we will be able to dissolve and move the rest to somewhere else.<br />
RTE: OK, fine, as long as you do&#8230;<br />
NE: OK<br />
RTE: Did Sumeyye arrive?<br />
NE: She arrived home, she&#8217;ll now come here. OK daddy, we will sort this out today, inshallah (with God&#8217;s permission). Anything else?<br />
RTE: It would be good if you do&#8230; If you can dissolve them all.<br />
BE: Yes, we will dissolve them all, inshallah</p>
<p>3rd call 15.39<br />
RTE: Did you do the other tasks I gave you?<br />
BE: We will finish them in the evening. We sorted some out; We sorted the Berat part, now we will first handle the part with Mehmet Gur and the rest, we will do that when it gets dark.<br />
RTE:&#8230;.<br />
BE: Inshallah<br />
RTE: What did Sumeyye do?<br />
BE: She took them out, brought, we talked, etc.<br />
RTE: Did she sort both sides?<br />
BE: I think so daddy, she said she emptied both.<br />
RTE: Both sides<br />
BE: Yes, she said both of them, but you mean this by saying both sides, right?<br />
RTE: Whatever. OK, fine<br />
BE: What time will you arrive?<br />
RTE: About 12<br />
BE: Have a safe journey<br />
RTE: Do not talk on the phone</p>
<p>4th call 23.15<br />
BE: Hi daddy, I am calling to&#8230; we did [it] mostly. Eee, did you call me daddy?<br />
RTE: No I did not, you called me<br />
BE: I was called from a secret number<br />
RTE: By saying mostly, did you fully dissolve it<br />
BE: We did not zeroized it yet daddy. Let me explain.. We still have a 30 million euros that we could not yet dissolve. Berat thought of something.. There was an additional 25 million dollars that <a href="http://www.calik.com/en" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Ahmet Calik</a> should receive. They say let&#8217;s give this [to him] there. When the money comes, we do [something], they say. And with the remaining money we can buy a flat from <a href="http://www.sehrizar.com/" target="_blank" rel=" noreferrer">Sehrizar</a>, he says. What do you say, father?<br />
RTE: &#8230;.<br />
(background soun: Ayyy)<br />
BE: Daddy<br />
RTE: Is Sumeyye with you?<br />
BE: Yes with me, should I call her?<br />
RTE: No, there was another sound, that&#8217;s why I asked<br />
BE: Umm.. I mean, he can transfer 35 million dollars to Calik and buy a flat from Sherizar with the remaining.<br />
RTE: Whatever, we will sort it<br />
BE: Should we do it like this?<br />
RTE: OK do it<br />
BE: Do you want them all dissolved father, or do you want some money for yourself<br />
RTE: No, it cannot stay, son. You could transfer that to the other, with Mehmet you could transfer it there&#8230;<br />
BE: Yes, we gave to them. We gave 20 to them<br />
RTE: For God&#8217;s sake, first you should&#8217;ve transferred you could then do&#8230;<br />
BE: we were able to give this much for now, it is hard already, it takes too much space. We are putting some of it to another place, we gave part of it to Tunc, and then&#8230;<br />
RTE: did you transfer all to Tunc?<br />
BE: (Sumeyye, can you come) Where, father?<br />
RTE: To Tunc, I say, did you transfer all to Tunc?<br />
BE: They asked, I guess he said that he could take 10 million euros.<br />
RTE: Whatever. Do not talk this like this on this.<br />
BE: OK, then, we will sort it as such<br />
RTE: Ok do it. I am not able to come tonight, I will stay in Ankara<br />
BE:OK, we are sorting it out. You do not worry</p>
<p>5th call<br />
18.12.2013 10.58<br />
RTE. I wondered if everything is fine, so I called<br />
BE: No, nothing. We finished the tasks you gave us, with the help of the God<br />
RTE: Is it all zeroed?<br />
BE: Fully, I mean saying zeroed, how should I put it? I had Samandira and Maltepe&#8217;s money, 730.000 USD and 300.000 TL. I will handle these too. We owe 1 million TL to Faruk İsik (AKP MP); I will give those to him and tell him to transfer the rest to the academy.<br />
RTE: Do not talk openly<br />
BE: Should&#8217;t I talk?<br />
RTE: Do not talk, OK?<br />
BE: OK daddy<br />
RTE: I mean, do not keep anything on you, whatever it is Samandira or whatever&#8230; Send it to where it needs to be, where do you keep it?<br />
BE: OK daddy, but I think currently we are under surveillance<br />
RTE: What have I been telling to you since the very beginning!<br />
BE: But is it the bodyguard team? Who is following us father?<br />
RTE: Son, you are being tapped<br />
BE: But they are also visually monitoring, they say<br />
RTE: That may be true. Now, we did some things (meaning intervention) in Istanbul security</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Who is Turkey&#8217;s PM Erdogan Blaming for his Corruption Scandal?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/who-is-turkeys-pm-erdogan-blaming-for-his-corruption-scandal/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=who-is-turkeys-pm-erdogan-blaming-for-his-corruption-scandal</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/who-is-turkeys-pm-erdogan-blaming-for-his-corruption-scandal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Dec 2013 03:21:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=214142</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ Possibly Zionist telekinetic assassins. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/erdoganmohammed3.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-179455" alt="erdoganmohammed3" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/erdoganmohammed3.jpg" width="397" height="311" /></a></p>
<p>To no one&#8217;s surprise the entire Turkish government has been caught with its hand in the country&#8217;s pocket. And even less surprising, the Erdogan regime is blaming absolutely everyone and everything except themselves.</p>
<p>1. The United States &#8211; this is an easy one. Turkey is xenophobic and the AKP&#8217;s base tends to be hard core Islamic and really loathes America. Not that anyone in Turkey really likes America. The strategy worked in Egypt, so perversely Morsi&#8217;s biggest ally is now using it.</p>
<p>2. Israel &#8211; This one is barely worth mentioning. If a stray pigeon flies across the border, it&#8217;s probably an Israeli spy.</p>
<p>3. The interest rate lobby &#8211; Some combination of a vast Jewish conspiracy, America and everyone who has a big chunk of the huge debt that Erdogan ran up funding his &#8220;economic miracle&#8221;.</p>
<p>4. Telekinesis -  Erdogan&#8217;s <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/08/22/i-thought-so-of-turkey-and-telekinesis/">chief adviser blamed telekinetic</a> assassins. Possibly Zionist telekinetic assassins.</p>
<p>5. The Deep State- With most of the Turkish military in prison, this should have been a bit passe, but European leftists go wild for it. Tell them the Deep State is behind it and they&#8217;ll give Erdogan their unlimited backing.</p>
<p>6. The Gulen Movement &#8211; The Gulen movement is actually behind it, but everyone inside Turkey is being careful about not blaming them too loudly. That&#8217;s smart considering the sheer amount of blackmail material they have on everyone. Enough perhaps to finish bringing down Erdogan.</p>
<p>7. The police &#8211; The cops clearly are to blame. That&#8217;s why Erdogan is purging them and banning the media from police stations.</p>
<p>8. Alcoholics &#8211; This one plays well with Erdogan&#8217;s base. The non-drunk part. Erdogan was pushing to sideline liquor in Turkey. Now the drinkers have struck back.</p>
<p>9. Mysterious foreign powers &#8211; They&#8217;re powerful, mysterious and deliberately vague. How you can go wrong with that?</p>
<p>10. A vast Ameri-Zionist conspiracy of telekinetic interest lobbies run by the Deep State and the alcoholic police &#8211; That&#8217;s the one Erdogan will eventually go with.</p>
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		<title>Turkey: Erdogan Says Erdogan Should Step Down</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/turkey-erdogan-says-erdogan-should-step-down/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkey-erdogan-says-erdogan-should-step-down</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/turkey-erdogan-says-erdogan-should-step-down/#respond</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Dec 2013 14:28:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=213884</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[550 police officers, including senior commanders, had been dismissed]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-005.gif"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-183451" alt="Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-005" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-005.gif" width="375" height="280" /></a></p>
<p>Unfortunately Erdogan has chosen not to listen to Erdogan&#8217;s advice even though Erdogan is a member of his own cabinet.</p>
<p>These two Erdogans are not the same person. Erdogan Bayraktar, the Environment Minister, one of three ministers to resign over a corruption probe, said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country&#8217;s brutal Islamist Prime Minister, should resign.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s<a href="http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2013/12/turkish-pm-faces-resignation-call-as.html"> a major breach in the solidarity of the Erdogan</a> regime. Erdogan was supposed to take a hit for Team Islam. Instead he left while strongly suggesting that his bayonet mosque was responsible and should have resigned.</p>
<blockquote><p>Erdogan Bayraktar, the environment minister, said the prime minister should also step down, in the television interview in which he confirmed he was quitting.</p>
<p>He said a great proportion of the construction contracts being investigated by the police were approved by his boss.</p>
<p>“For the sake of the wellbeing of this nation and country, I want to express my belief that the esteemed prime minister should also resign,” Mr Bayraktar said.</p>
<p>The investigation focuses on a find of the equivalent of $4.5 million (£2.75 million) found stashed in shoe boxes in the home of the chief executive of the state-run Halkbank. Among the at least 25 people arrested were Salih Khan, the son of the economy minister, Zafer Caglayan, and Baris Guler, the son of the interior minister, Muammer Guler, in whose house a further $1 million (£600,000) was found.</p></blockquote>
<p>Erdogan is about as likely to voluntarily resign as Stalin was. So<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12-25/turkey-cabinet-ministers-quit-after-sons-jailed-in-graft-probe#p2"> he&#8217;s doing the usual thing</a>s, going after the police who are investigating his crimes and blaming the United States.</p>
<blockquote><p>Erdogan, in a speech to members of his ruling party today, described the probe as “an ugly conspiracy.” He said the party has a “tough stance on corruption” and called on Turks to maintain their trust in his government.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yes, one of those vast conspiracies. The last time he detected one of those, he locked up half the officers in Turkey. But if he locks up all the cops in Turkey, who will do the locking up?</p>
<p>Qatar&#8217;s Special Forces just aren&#8217;t that big.</p>
<blockquote><p>The 14-month probe was conducted largely in secret. At the weekend, the Erdogan government changed regulations for the police, requiring officers to report evidence, investigations, arrests and complaints to commanding officers and prosecutors. Crime reporters have further been banned from police stations.</p>
<p>Hurriyet newspaper said as many as 550 police officers, including senior commanders, had been dismissed nationwide by Guler over the last week.</p></blockquote>
<p>Guler w<a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/erdogan-challenged-as-three-turk-ministers-quit-over-scandal/1817186.html">ould be one of the ministers who</a> just resigned.</p>
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		<title>Obama’s Israeli-Turkish Detente Goes Bust</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/obamas-israeli-turkish-detente-goes-bust/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obamas-israeli-turkish-detente-goes-bust</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 04:50:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=196544</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the critics were right to pan Netanyahu's apology to Islamist-controlled Turkey. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2013-03-25T143853Z_663707091_GM1E93P1QIA01_RTRMADP_3_TURKEY-ISRAEL-ERDOGAN.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-196567" alt="2013-03-25T143853Z_663707091_GM1E93P1QIA01_RTRMADP_3_TURKEY-ISRAEL-ERDOGAN" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2013-03-25T143853Z_663707091_GM1E93P1QIA01_RTRMADP_3_TURKEY-ISRAEL-ERDOGAN-450x280.jpg" width="270" height="168" /></a>Last March 22, at the tail-end of President Obama’s visit to Israel, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “apologized” over the phone to Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the 2010 <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/davidhornik/world-regrets-deaths-of-jihadists-vilifies-israel/"><i>Mavi Marmara</i> incident</a>—in which Israeli commandos, in fighting for their lives against a club- and knife-wielding mob of Turkish Islamists, killed nine of the attackers.</span></b></p>
<p>The apology drew sharp criticism, mainly from Israeli and U.S. conservatives. Some blamed Netanyahu for allegedly cravenly giving in to Obama; some blamed Obama for allegedly pressuring Netanyahu into the move.</p>
<p>I didn’t join the critics at the time. First of all, there was Netanyahu’s wording. He told Erdogan he “apologized for operational errors that may have led to a loss of life.” In fact, it’s agreed in Israel that the commandos’ landing on the ship was poorly planned, and if done differently could have averted a violent eruption.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean Israel actually had anything at all to apologize for. It didn’t; the Turkish side had instigated the aggression. But Netanyahu did not say he “apologized” for the fact that his soldiers had defended themselves, which indeed would have been deplorable. It was a nuance worth noting.</p>
<p>More importantly, though, I thought the “apology” might be justifiable as a realpolitik move if it led to restored Israeli-Turkish strategic cooperation. The critics pooh-poohed that possibility as well, stressing Erdogan’s nature as an anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic Islamist.</p>
<p>They had good foundations for saying that; but the history was a bit more complicated. Although Erdogan and his Islamist AKP had first taken office in 2003, the strategic relations had continued after that point. In 2005 Erdogan <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/3941568">visited Israel</a> with a large group of businessmen, held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, laid a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, and said Iran’s nuclear program was a threat not just to Israel but to the whole world.</p>
<p>True, relations started to sour before the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> when Erdogan—not a huge fan of Israeli self-defense against terrorists—objected to Israel’s 2008-2009 operation against Hamas in Gaza. Already in October 2009, Erdogan barred Israel from participating in an aerial exercise with Turkey, the U.S., and Italy.</p>
<p>By last spring, though, it seemed that common Israeli and Turkish concerns about the Syrian crisis and Iran—greased by some propitiatory words from Netanyahu—could lead to at least a low-key resumption of ties. In April it was <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-seeks-turkish-airbase-to-enable-iran-strike/">reported</a> that Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror was in Ankara to get Turkey’s agreement, in exchange for Israeli favors, to Israeli use of a key Turkish airbase. An Israeli military source called Turkey, before the 2010 crisis, “our biggest aircraft carrier.”</p>
<p>By now, though, there have been no further reports in that vein. Israeli-Turkish talks have stalled, and there has been no normalization of relations or exchange of ambassadors. It appears that, regarding Erdogan’s disposition toward Israel ca. 2013, the critics were right.</p>
<p>Indeed, as Walter Russell Mead <a href="http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/07/08/anti-semitism-runs-deep-in-turkeys-akp/">notes</a>, Erdogan and his AKP have—quite in contrast to any warming toward Israel—been heavily playing the anti-Semitism card in reacting to recent Turkish protests against Islamist rule. Erdogan attributes the protests to “dark forces” and the “interest lobby.” While these are understood as anti-Semitic code words, other elements in his party have been more explicit.</p>
<p>Mead quotes from <a href="http://www.turkeyanalyst.org/publications/turkey-analyst-articles/item/49-erdo%25C4%259Fan-the-akp-and-the-repercussions-of-the-gezi-park-protests.html">an article in <i>The Turkey Analyst</i></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>the main pro-AKP daily newspaper </i>Yeni Şafak<i> claimed that it had uncovered evidence that the…protests had been orchestrated by the “Jewish lobby” in the U.S. and even published the names and photographs of a number of prominent Jewish Americans who it alleged were the leaders of the conspiracy. The </i>Yeni Şafak<i> article was publicly endorsed by a succession of leading members of the AKP…. On July 1, 2013, the Turkish Cihan news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay as publicly accusing the “Jewish Diaspora” of responsibility for the…protests….</i></p>
<p><i>Erdogan himself has not explicitly identified Jews as being responsible…. Yet neither has he condemned or attempted to distance himself from the claims. Indeed, he has instructed several state institutions&#8230;to launch an investigation to uncover evidence of suspicious</i> <i>financial trading by foreign financiers before and during the protests and to identify the foreign “dark forces” he is convinced are trying to undermine him.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>Given the timing of Netanyahu’s telephone chat with Erdogan last March—at the end of Obama’s visit—it can reasonably be inferred that, whether or not Netanyahu deserves to be blamed for going along with it, the Israeli “apology” and supposed reconciliation was Obama’s idea. Has Obama learned anything from the failure of that idea?</p>
<p>The question is not meant to be rhetorical. Last week another Islamist party, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, was overthrown. As with Erdogan, Obama had shown considerable sympathy toward the Brotherhood. The fact that he’s now continuing military aid to the Egyptian army that overthrew them suggests Obama has realized that the Brotherhood was not such a positive force after all.</p>
<p>The AKP, unlike the Brotherhood, has been steadily arrogating power to itself for a decade, and it seems unlikely that the Turkish anti-AKP protests can go as far as the Egyptian anti-Brotherhood protests went. The next Turkish national elections, though, are in 2015. Can Obama start seeing the Turkish picture more clearly, as he and his administration seem (belatedly) to be <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egypt-welcomes-US-remarks-that-Morsis-rule-undemocratic-hopes-for-continued-aid-319555">reading it better</a> in Egypt?</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Turkish Deputy PM Blames Protests on &#8220;Jewish Conspiracy&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/turkish-deputy-pm-blames-protests-on-jewish-conspiracy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkish-deputy-pm-blames-protests-on-jewish-conspiracy</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:40:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=195370</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After accusing the Jewish Diaspora for provoking the events via the foreign media, Atalay concluded by asserting that “The ones trying to block the way of Great Turkey will not succeed.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/r-BESIR-ATALAY-large570.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-195371" alt="Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay a" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/r-BESIR-ATALAY-large570-450x187.jpg" width="450" height="187" /></a></p>
<p>That makes <a href="Atalay">Deputy PM Besir Atalay the highest</a> ranking AKP government official to stop beating around the bush and get around to saying what Erdogan and all his goons had been progressively hinting at.</p>
<blockquote><p>In a conference at the AK Party headquarters in the Central Anatolian province of Kırıkkale, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay named the “Jewish Diaspora” as the culprit in triggering the country’s recent civil unrest.</p>
<p>n video footage released by the Cihan News Agency, Atalay said, “There are some circles that are jealous of Turkey growing so much.</p>
<p>They are all uniting, on one side the Jewish Diaspora. You saw the foreign media’s attitude during the Gezi Park incidents; they bought it and started broadcasting immediately, without evaluating.”</p>
<p>After accusing the Jewish Diaspora for provoking the events via the foreign media, Atalay concluded by asserting that “The ones trying to block the way of Great Turkey will not succeed.”</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/jewish-diaspora-behind-gezi-protests-turkish-deputy-prime-minister-says.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=49858&amp;NewsCatID=338">Naturally Deputy PM had</a> an explanation for his comments. He never said them.</p>
<blockquote><p>Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay has denied media reports that he blamed the Jewish diaspora for the Gezi unrest.</p>
<p>Atalay’s press office said in a written statement today that the minister had not used such an expression.</p>
<p>&#8220;In his speech [Deputy PM atalay] has never intended, uttered or indicated anything to offend Jewish citizens of Turkey or Jewish communities around the world,&#8221; the statament said.</p></blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately for Atalay <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=428&amp;VideoID=573">his remarks were caught on video</a> making any claim that he didn&#8217;t say them rather hard to defend. But despite the characterization of his remarks, Beşir Atalay isn&#8217;t quite saying that he didn&#8217;t say it. He is saying that he never said anything to offend Jewish communities around the world. So perhaps what he meant was that Jews shouldn&#8217;t be offended by being accused of conspiring to stage mass protests against the Turkish government.</p>
<p>Perhaps Atalay actually meant it as a compliment.</p>
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		<title>Turkey&#8217;s Islamist Regime Explaining Everything in Terms of Vast Global Conspiracy</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-regime-explaining-everything-in-terms-of-vast-global-conspiracy/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkeys-islamist-regime-explaining-everything-in-terms-of-vast-global-conspiracy</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Jun 2013 13:56:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[akp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BBC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=194465</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["Led by England, they are trying to collapse our economy via agents hired, both nationally and internationally." ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/7312_3.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-194469" alt="7312_3" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/7312_3-450x283.jpg" width="450" height="283" /></a></p>
<p>It can&#8217;t be that large numbers of educated young people are angry at being ground under by an Islamist dictatorship. That would look like a Turkish Spring. Instead it&#8217;s a vast conspiracy by England, the Internet Lobby and the Jews.</p>
<p>The goal of the Islamist AKP regime is to give as much publicity as possible to its international conspiracy theories in order to discredit the protesters. (The conspiracy theories are a joke because the same international groups and governments that backed the overthrow of Mubarak, support Erdogan, his crony capitalism and the Islamization of Turkey.)</p>
<p>But the Mayor of Ankara deserves a special award for<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/24/world/europe/turkey-gokcek-hashtag/index.html"> beclowing himself above and beyond</a> the call of duty.</p>
<blockquote><p>The drama began Sunday when Ibrahim Melih Gokcek, the man who has been mayor of Turkey&#8217;s capital for more than a decade, accused a reporter from the BBC&#8217;s Turkish service of being a foreign agent.</p>
<p>&#8220;Led by England, they are trying to collapse our economy via agents hired, both nationally and internationally. They are dreaming for Turkey to be the &#8216;Sick man of Europe&#8217; once again. Here is a concrete proof.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Turkey isn&#8217;t just the sick man of Europe. It&#8217;s the Typhoid Mohammed of Germany and Austria. But a fight between the Beeb, which usually claims Erdogan is running a moderate Islamist democracy and Erdogan&#8217;s minions is fun for the whole family.</p>
<blockquote><p>The BBC issued a statement Monday expressing concern about what it described as threats issued by Turkish officials against a BBC correspondent.</p></blockquote>
<p>Maybe the BBC shouldn&#8217;t have been promoting the AKP out of fear of some vast military Deep State conspiracy that might have preserved freedom of religion in the country.</p>
<blockquote><p>Gokcek is an elected official from the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, which is led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Since an unprecedented explosion of street protests against Erdogan erupted more than three weeks ago, the prime minister and his deputies have accused demonstrators of being terrorists and vandals organized by an alleged shadowy foreign conspiracy Erdogan has labeled &#8220;the interest lobby.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gokcek appeared determined to prove this Sunday via Twitter. Shortly after accusing Girit of being a spy, he announced the creation of the Turkish hashtag #INGILTEREADINAAJANLIKYAPMASELINGIRIT, which translates roughly to &#8220;Don&#8217;t be a spy in the name of England Selin Girit.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Why do I have a feeling that old Gok came up with this plan after downing too much Haram Ouzo?</p>
<blockquote><p>Then, the mayor of Ankara launched a campaign to make the hashtag one of Twitter&#8217;s worldwide trends. For the next several hours, he cheered on his followers as the accusation gained online traction with messages like &#8220;Keep going Turkiye. Our Hash Tag is ranked 2th. Must place to number 1. This will be our answer to BBC.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Great plan. It&#8217;s not like the Occupy Gezi activists are any good at social media.</p>
<blockquote><p>Online opponents began mobilizing their own hashtag in response to the mayor of Ankara. They began retweeting the hashtag #provokatormelihgokçek (Melih Gokcek is a provocateur).</p>
<p>By Sunday night in Turkey, #provokatormelihgokcek had replaced the mayor&#8217;s hashtag attacking Girit on Twitter&#8217;s list of world-wide trends.</p></blockquote>
<p>So naturally Gokcek responded with the dignity and restraint you would expect of a man who tried to turn his accusation that a BBC correspondent is James Bond into a trending topic on Twitter instead of running his disastrous city.</p>
<blockquote><p>Gokcek responded by threatening anyone in the world who retweeted the provocateur hashtag with legal action. &#8220;My lawyer is going to sue everyone one by one who tweets #ProvokatorMelihGokcek No one can get away with anything because Turkey is a country of law,&#8221; the mayor of Ankara announced on Twitter Sunday night.</p></blockquote>
<p>By law, Gokcek means the AKP&#8217;s power to go after people who attack its leaders, while its leaders can casually accuse everyone else of being spies and international conspirators.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has waged one of the world&#8217;s biggest crackdowns on press freedom in recent history,&#8221; wrote the Committee to Protect Journalists in a 2012 report. Reporters Without Borders has labeled Turkey among the world&#8217;s worst jailers of journalists, since scores of media workers are currently in prison, many of them awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges.</p></blockquote>
<p>Maybe now the BBC will start paying attention to what Erdogan has been doing all along.</p>
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		<title>Turkey&#8217;s Islamist Government Upset At Un-Islamic Ottoman Empire Soap Opera</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-government-upset-at-un-islamic-ottoman-empire-soap-opera/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkeys-islamist-government-upset-at-un-islamic-ottoman-empire-soap-opera</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-government-upset-at-un-islamic-ottoman-empire-soap-opera/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:11:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=168064</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dozens of egg-throwing protesters chanted “Allah Akbar” outside the Show TV studios. Some viewers were irate because the series showed the Sultan drinking alcohol — banned in Islam — and womanizing with concubines in the harem. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-government-upset-at-un-islamic-ottoman-empire-soap-opera/cr_mega_69_sultan-1/" rel="attachment wp-att-168065"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-168065" title="cr_mega_69_sultan-1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cr_mega_69_sultan-1-450x337.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="337" /></a></p>
<p>Turkey&#8217;s AKP Islamists would like to bring back the Ottoman Empire. The trouble is that they want to bring back an imaginary version of that empire which is purely Islamic and hews to Islamic morality, and there is a reason why Westerners associate the Ottoman Empire with decadence.</p>
<p>The AKP Islamists have crushed the military, but <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/steamy-turkish-tv-drama-draws-fire-from-prime-minister/">they haven&#8217;t quite crushed the culture yet</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Critics “ask why are we dealing with the affairs of Iraq, Syria and Gaza,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech Sunday at the opening of an airport in western Turkey, according to Reuters. “They know our fathers and ancestors through ‘Magnificent Century,’ but we don’t know such a Suleiman. He spent 30 years on horseback, not in the palace, not what you see in that series.”</p>
<p>He said that the director of the series and owner of the channel that broadcasts it had been warned, that judicial authorities had been alerted and that a judicial decision was expected. “Those who toy with these values should be taught a lesson within the premises of law,” he said, according to The Hurriyet Daily News.</p>
<p>Cultural critics and political rivals railed against Mr. Erdogan, accusing him of cultural authoritarianism and censorship. Muharrem Ince, deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, accused Mr. Erdogan of behaving like a sultan, saying that he was jealous of the series’ popularity and determined to be the only sultan in the country. Mr. Erdogan, whose governing party has Islamic roots, has sought to embrace and rehabilitate the Ottoman Empire, a period of grandeur when the sultans claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world before the empire’s ignominious decline by World War I.</p>
<p>Mr. Erdogan at the time called the program disrespectful and “an effort to show our history in a negative light to the younger generations.” Dozens of egg-throwing protesters chanted “Allah Akbar” outside the Show TV studios.</p>
<p>Some viewers were irate because the series showed the Sultan drinking alcohol — banned in Islam — and womanizing with concubines in the harem.</p></blockquote>
<p>Muslims can hardly complain about that. Mohammed had quite a harem as well. But the real problem for Erdogan is that he would like to see a militaristic Ottoman Empire depicted on television, but there wouldn&#8217;t be much interest in watching constant beheadings, especially when Erdogan&#8217;s fellow Jihadists offer the real thing on the internet.</p>
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		<title>Landslide Islamist Victory in Turkey</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/ryan-mauro/landslide-islamist-victory-in-turkey/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=landslide-islamist-victory-in-turkey</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:58:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Champions of Sharia now set to rewrite constitution. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-005.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95903" title="Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-005" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-005.gif" alt="" width="375" height="280" /></a></p>
<p>Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory in Sunday’s elections. The Islamists won half of the vote, leaving them short of the two-thirds majority they sought in the parliament, which would have allowed them to rewrite the constitution unobstructed. However, the AKP’s huge victory means the Islamists will still control Turkey and oversee the writing of a new constitution.</p>
<p>The election actually results in a slight loss for the AKP. The party currently holds 331 of the 550 seats in parliament, and is <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/recep-erdogan-turkey-general-election">projected</a> to now only have 325. The Islamists must win the support of only five non-AKP seats to put up a draft constitution for a referendum. The popularity of Prime Minister Erdogan and his party means that such a referendum is very likely to pass. The AKP may not have the two-thirds majority that would have allowed for a unilateral writing of the constitution, or even enough to unilaterally submit a draft for a referendum, but not much stands in its way.</p>
<p>“Elections taking place today are likely to be the last fair and free ones in Turkey. With Turkey&#8217;s leading Islamist party controlling all three branches of the government and the military sidelined, little will stop it from changing the rules to keep power into the indefinite future,” <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/06/turkey-last-free-election">wrote</a> Dr. Daniel Pipes of the electoral results.</p>
<p>In September, 58 percent of Turks voted in favor of a referendum that paved the way for a new constitution. Tellingly, Iran <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/142389.html">endorsed</a> the referendum. A key objective was to undermine the power of the military that has acted as a vanguard of secularism. It <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/world/europe/16iht-letter.html">asserts</a> civilian control over the military and increased the power of the president and the parliament over the judiciary. Both the presidency and the parliament are controlled by the AKP.</p>
<p>The Erdogan government’s reforms were <a href="http://turkey.usembassy.gov/statements_091310.html">welcomed</a> in the West because they make Turkey more democratic structurally, but these reforms have coincided with disturbing crackdowns on political opponents. The government has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/world/europe/13turkey.html">blocked</a> many websites, including YouTube, without having to explain why. Over 60 journalists have been imprisoned for what they’ve written. Two of them were arrested in March and have still not been informed of the charges against them. As Dr. Barry Rubin <a href="http://www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/06/turkish-regime-changes-sides">points out</a>, the Erdogan government has “repressed opposition and arrested hundreds of critics, bought up 40 percent of the media, and installed its people in the bureaucracy.”</p>
<p>There has also been a concerted effort to decrease the political influence of the military. Over 160 current and former military officers have been <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/turkey-begins-arrest-of-military-officers-linked-to-alleged-2003-coup-attempt-1.342946">charged</a> with involvement in an alleged coup plot in 2003. It has been <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/27/MNQ21C7OKE.DTL&amp;feed=rss.news_world">called</a> the “the largest-ever crackdown on Turkey&#8217;s military.” The government claims that elements of the military sought to carry out attacks, including the bombing of mosques. Those arrested have also been accused of planning to foment conflict by provoking Greece to shoot down a Turkish military aircraft. Top officials including the former commander of the First Army and former leaders of the air force, special forces and navy have been arrested. Erdogan’s opponents allege that the arrests are politically-motivated.</p>
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		<title>Ambitious Turkey</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/daniel-pipes/ambitious-turkey/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=ambitious-turkey</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:01:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Pipes]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Aspiring to reshape Muslim countries in its Islamist image. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IRAN-Turkey-deal-nuclear1.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-90706" title="IRAN-Turkey-deal-nuclear" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IRAN-Turkey-deal-nuclear1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="326" /></a></p>
<p><strong>[Editor&#8217;s note: the following article was originally published at <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/9671/ambitious-turkey">National Review Online</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>Turkey&#8217;s Foreign Minister <a href="http://www.hudson-ny.org/2027/turkey-more-democratic-than-some-eu-members">Ahmet Davutoğlu</a> grandiloquently proclaimed recently that, &#8220;If the world is on fire, Turkey is the firefighter. Turkey is assuming the leading role for stability in the Middle East.&#8221;</p>
<p>Such ambition is new for Ankara. In the 1990s, it contentedly fulfilled its NATO obligations and followed Washington&#8217;s lead. Starting about 1996, <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/293/a-new-axis-the-emerging-turkish-israeli-entente">relations with Israel</a> blossomed. In all, Turkish policy offered an attractive exception to the tyrannical, Islamist, and conspiracist mentality generally dominating Muslim peoples. That the country&#8217;s political leaders were corrupt and fumbling seemed of little consequence.</p>
<p>Those faults, however, proved extremely consequential, leading to the repudiation of long-established political parties and the victory of an Islamist party, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), in the elections of November 2002. By March 2003, in advance of the coming war in Iraq, the new government signaled that a new era had begun by refusing to permit American troops to traverse Turkish territory.</p>
<p>Over the next eight years, Turkish foreign policy become increasingly hostile to the West in general, the United States, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/24/turkey-france-clash-libya-campaign">France</a>, Israel in particular, even as it warmed to governments in Syria, Iran, and Libya. This shift became particularly evident in May 2010, when Ankara both helped Tehran <a href="http://www.mideastweb.org/teheran_declaration_2010.htm">avoid sanctions</a> for its nuclear program and injured Israel&#8217;s reputation with the <a href="http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/05/31/pictures-of-weapons-found-on-the-mavi-marmara-flotilla-ship-31-may-2010/">Mavi Marmara-led flotilla</a>.</p>
<p>But the full extent of Ankara&#8217;s Middle East ambitions emerged in early 2011, concurrent with the region&#8217;s far-reaching upheavals. Suddenly, Turks were ubiquitous. Their recent activities include:</p>
<p><em>Providing a model</em>: The Turkish president,<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=president-gul-turkey-must-raise-its-standards-to-be-regional-model-2011-04-07">Abdullah Gül</a>, holds that Turkey can have a &#8220;great and unbelievable positive effect&#8221; on the Middle East – and he has some takers. For example, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=tunisian-islamist-leader-embraces-turkey-praises-erbakan-2011-03-03">Rached Ghannouchi</a>, leader of Tunisia&#8217;s newly legalized Ennahda movement, has stated: &#8220;We are learning from the experience of Turkey, especially the peace that has been reached in the country between Islam and modernity.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>Offering an economic lifeline to Iran</em>: Gül paid a <a href="http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&amp;tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=37534">state visit to Tehran</a> in February, accompanied by a large group of businessmen, capping an evolution whereby, according to the Jamestown Foundation, &#8220;Turkey is becoming a major [economic] lifeline for Iran.&#8221; In addition, Gül <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171353.html">praised the Iranian political system</a>.</p>
<p><em>Obstructing foreign efforts in Libya</em>: Starting on <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=an-external-intervention-to-libya-would-make-the-situation-worse-turkish-fm-davutoglu-says-2011-03-02">March 2</a>, the Turkish government objected to any military intervention against Mu&#8217;ammar al-Qaddafi&#8217;s regime. &#8220;Foreign interventions, especially military interventions, only deepen the problem,&#8221; Davutoğlu put it on <a href="http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/turkeys-pm-erdogan-voices-opposition-to-any-nato-operation-in-l">March 14</a>, perhaps worrying about a similar intervention to <a href="http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/world/news/64904/">protect Kurds in eastern Turkey</a>. When military operations began on<a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-238700-turkish-minister-says-turkey-did-not-join-operation.html">March 19</a>, Turkish forces did not take part. Turkish opposition <a href="http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=126461">delayed NATO</a>&#8216;s engagement in Libya until <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1629882.php/Rasmussen-NATO-has-taken-full-control-of-Libya-operations">March 31</a> and then freighted it with conditions.</p>
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		<title>Losing Turkey</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 04:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The frightening strategic consequences.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/turkey_islamism.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-62723" title="turkey_islamism" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/turkey_islamism.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="286" /></a></p>
<p>The most significant outcome of the <em>Mavi Marmara</em> incident is that there can no longer be any doubt that Turkey has joined the anti-Western bloc that includes Hamas,  Iran and Syria. The Muslim country was once devotedly secular, an ally of Israel, and remains a member of NATO, but under the direction of Prime Minister Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party (often referred to as the AKP), Turkey has gone in the completely opposite direction with enormous strategic consequences.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, the AKP government of Mr. Erdogan and the oil-rich regime of Qatar joined the regional bloc opposing the more traditional governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco,” Dr. Walid Phares told FrontPage.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s turn to the other side is not the result of a single incident such as Operation Cast Lead or the Israeli raid on the flotilla, but is the culmination of an agenda long held by Erdogan and the AKP.</p>
<p>“In fact, it is not secular Turkey that we see moving against the U.S., West, Israel and Arab moderates. It is the AKP Islamist cabinet which is uncovering its long-term ideological agenda. The West should have projected this since 2002,” Dr. Phares said, referring to the year in which Erdogan’s party won a majority in the Turkish parliament.</p>
<p>Erdogan was imprisoned in 1998 for his involvement with the banned Welfare Party, which the Turkish government considered Islamist. Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy <a href="http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2009/10/26/89250.html">describes</a> the Welfare Party as the “motherboard of Turkish Islamists since the 1980s,” saying it was inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. Erdogan was specifically punished for <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2270642.stm">reading</a> a poem at one speech with the lines, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers.”</p>
<p>In 2001, he founded the AKP, which took a more moderate line, portraying itself as committed to separation of mosque and state but “faithful governance,” as Dr. Essam El-Erian, the chief of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political bureau, <a href="http://www.ikhwanweb.net/article.php?id=1035">described</a> the AKP’s “moderate Islamist” ideology. There was no anti-Western rhetoric and the party strongly supported membership in the European Union. The group won a large victory in the 2002 elections, resulting in Erdogan taking the post of Prime Minister.</p>
<p>Dr. El-Erian praised Erdogan’s victory, saying that it was the result of the “exposing of the failure of the secular trend.” El-Erian confirmed that the Muslim Brotherhood had close ties to the AKP, but the West treated Turkey as if nothing had changed. It wasn’t until Turkey steadfastly refused to allow U.S. soldiers to transit their territory to overthrow Saddam Hussein that the West began questioning the allegiance of Erdogan’s government.</p>
<p>The Erdogan government soon began a concerted effort to fuel anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment, knowing that such feelings help the AKP politically and hurt its opponents in the secular military that have long ties to the West. The Turkish media consistently <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704875604575281392195250402.html">reported</a> alleged U.S. atrocities, fanning the already massive anti-war sentiment. The outrageous claims can only be compared to the anti-Israeli propaganda seen in the Arab world and Iran, echoing similar themes such as the use of chemical weapons against civilians and the harvesting of organs from killed Iraqis.</p>
<p>The AKP won an even larger share of the vote in the July 2007 election and had even more dominance over the government. Since then, the ideology of Erdogan has become more apparent as Turkish opinion has become less hostile to anti-Western Islamism.  Shortly after the victory, Turkey’s moves towards Iran and other enemies of the West became more visible and aggressive.</p>
<p>Turkey began entertaining the prospect of Iran’s natural gas being delivered to European markets through its territory, and the two countries launched joint military attacks against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. The Party of Free Life for Kurdistan, or PJAK, claimed it actually saw Turkish officers working alongside the Iranian military. Newsmax.com <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/2007101522389.htm">reported</a> that eight Turkish officers were in Iran coordinating the attacks with the Revolutionary Guards.</p>
<p>In the spring of 2009, Moqtada al-Sadr, the Iranian-backed militia leader whose followers killed dozens of American soldiers in Iraq, <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/05/20095115592374529.html">met</a> with Erdogan and Turkish President Abdullah Gul for “political consultations.” Most recently, Turkey has opposed sanctions on Iran and helped put together a deal with Brazil meant to delay any United Nations measures despite Iran’s lack of cooperation on the nuclear issue.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s government simultaneously became more anti-Israeli, particularly once the Israeli military offensive into Gaza began in response to the rocket attacks of Hamas. Erdogan went so far as to <a href="http://jta.org/news/article/2009/01/12/1002170/turkeys-harsh-criticism-of-israel-raises-questions">predict</a> that Israel’s actions “would bring it to self-destruction,” saying “Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents.” He <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2009/01/erdogan-bares-his-fangs">accused</a> Jewish-controlled media outlets of “finding unfounded excuses to justify targeting of schools, mosques and hospitals.”</p>
<p>On January 29, 2009, Erdogan publicly <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUGhomzXdFM">confronted</a> Israeli President Peres at the World Economic Forum over the Israeli offensive. When he was denied extra time to continue his criticism of Israel, he stormed out. Erdogan was a hero overnight in the Muslim world.</p>
<p>Soon after, an exhibit <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1258">opened</a> in a major state-controlled metro in Istanbul that included many viciously anti-Israeli and anti-American cartoons, portraying Israeli soldiers as massacring innocent people with American weapons. The AKP won the March 29 local elections, further cementing their hold and convincing Erdogan that he was politically safe to follow the agenda he held from the beginning. Later that year, Israel had to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/12/turkey.israel/index.html">confront</a> Turkey over anti-Israeli propaganda on prime-time state-controlled television.</p>
<p>In October, Turkey refused to allow Israel to participate in annual military exercises also involving Italy and the U.S. Instead, Turkey and Syria <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/after-snubbing-israel-turkey-to-hold-defense-drills-with-syria-1.6129">announced</a> that they would hold their own joint exercises. The Turkish-Syrian alliance began shortly after Erdogan came to power, with Syrian President Bashar Assad visiting Turkey and a free trade agreement being signed.</p>
<p>Turkey has also moved closer to Sudan, <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/134297">refusing</a> to describe the situation in Darfur as a genocide. Erdogan’s government also opposes the International Criminal Court’s indictment of President Omar al-Bashir for human rights violations. His defense of Bashir is that “no Muslim could perpetrate a genocide.”</p>
<p>Now, Turkey is taking center stage in the wake of the <em>Mavi Marmara</em> incident. Turkey is openly considering cutting off all diplomatic ties with Israel and is saying that its warships will escort future convoys to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. There are reports that Erdogan himself may actually join a convoy. Erdogan now openly <a href="http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=177496">says</a>, “I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization…They are Palestinians in resistance, fighting for their own land.”</p>
<p>He was among the first to accept Hamas after it was elected in Gaza, and he is <a href="http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=177512">calling</a> their rule a “democracy” based on elections alone. Democracy is much more than elections, but Erdogan, like the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, want to equate democracy with elections so as to give themselves legitimacy as they move against the other pillars of democracy. Professor Barry Rubin <a href="http://www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/06/turkish-regime-changes-sides">says</a> that as the AKP won election victories, the Erdogan government “repressed opposition and arrested hundreds of critics, bought up 40 percent of the media, and installed its people in the bureaucracy.”</p>
<p>Today, the government has begun the country’s “largest-ever crackdown” on the military, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/27/MNQ21C7OKE.DTL&amp;feed=rss.news_world">prosecuting</a> 33 current and former military officers for allegedly planning a coup to overthrow the AKP government in 2003 including the former head of the special forces. Those arrested have been accused of planning to carry out acts of terrorism including the bombing of mosques, which they deny. Given the military’s pride in acting as the guardian of Turkey’s secularism, it isn’t surprising that elements of the military would desire to see the AKP overthrown. However, this could be an Islamist attempt to weaken the military and paint them as dangerous and anti-Muslim.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s defense of the vessel owned by the <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7544">IHH,</a> a Turkish Islamist group tied to Hamas and other terrorist activity, is particularly insightful. Any true opponent of terrorism and radical Islamism would ban the group or at least officially investigate them. In 1997, the Turkish authorities raided the IHH’s office in Istanbul and made numerous arrests. IHH operatives were found with weapons-related materials and the French counterterrorism magistrate said that they were planning on supporting jihadists in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.</p>
<p>“The essential goal of this Association was to illegally arm its membership for overthrowing democratic, secular, and constitutional order present in Turkey and replacing it with an Islamic state founded on the Shariah,” the French magistrate’s report <a href="http://counterterrorismblog.org/2010/06/shooting_the_messenger_a_look.php">said.</a></p>
<p>If the goal of the IHH is to establish Sharia Law in Turkey, and Erdogan’s government is describing them as a “charity,” what does that say about Erdogan’s plans? <em>The Washington Post</em> has raised <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060404806.html">alarm</a> over this connection, noting the IHH leadership’s praise for Erdogan.</p>
<p>The West’s loss of Turkey has frightening strategic consequences. They are so frightening that the West refused to acknowledge the trend until it became undeniable in recent weeks. Professor Juan Cole, who already was a strident critic of Israel, bluntly <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/erdogan-israel-in-danger-of-losing-its-best-friend-in-the-region-nato-hq-seething.html">states,</a> “Strategically, if the U.S. had to choose between Turkey and Israel, it would have to choose Turkey.” The pressure on the U.S. to restrain Israel so as to court the stronger bloc has now become greater than ever.</p>
<p>The situation is even more precarious for other countries in the region previously bonding together to oppose Iran. Egypt, Saudi   Arabia, Jordan, and other countries in the Middle East and North  Africa that are hostile to Iran’s ambitions now face an even more threatening bloc that has been enlarged by the defection of Turkey. The temptation for them to surrender the mantle of leadership to the Iranian-Syrian-Turkish bloc in order to save themselves will now reach unprecedented levels, regardless of whether Iran obtains nuclear weapons or not.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, Erdogan’s prestige as the preeminent challenger of Israel will lead to competition with Iran, sparking an escalation where each side tries to establish superior anti-Israeli and anti-Western credentials. Israel is now in its most isolated and dangerous situation since its birth in 1948.</p>
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		<title>Erdogan’s Troubling Friends</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/robert-ellis/jihadi-turkey-rising/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jihadi-turkey-rising</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jun 2010 04:00:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Ellis]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The frightening merger of Islamist and neo-Ottoman foreign policy. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Iranian-President-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-L-shakes-hands-with-Turkish-Prime-Minister-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-in-Tehran-on-October-27-2009.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-62460" title="Nic398013" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Iranian-President-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-L-shakes-hands-with-Turkish-Prime-Minister-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-in-Tehran-on-October-27-2009-300x242.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="242" /></a></p>
<p>In 1974, when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was president of the Istanbul youth group of the MSP (the Islamist National Salvation Party), he wrote, directed, and starred in a play called <em>Mas-Kom-Ya,</em> which addressed subversive elements in Turkish society: masons, communists and <em>yahudi</em> (Jews). This very same performer has managed to convince gullible Western politicians that Turkey is committed to EU membership. Equally convincingly, he has played to the Arab gallery since his AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s tirade against Shimon Peres during a panel discussion at last year’s World Economic Forum in Davos – “you know very well how to kill” &#8211; earned plaudits all around the Arab world. The Lebanese daily <em>Dar A-Hayat</em> suggested that Erdogan should restore the Ottoman Empire and be the Caliph of all Muslims. By some accounts, this has been identified as the driving force behind Turkey’s expansionist foreign policy, which has been dubbed &#8220;neo-Ottoman.&#8221;</p>
<p>This new course obviously played out in Turkey&#8217;s role in the Gaza flotilla incident. According to Debka (an open source intelligence website) the flotilla was personally sponsored by Erdogan, and according to the same source, he is even prepared to sail aboard the next flotilla himself. Some awareness of the consequences must have been know, as a week before the flotilla sailed, Ankara threatened Israel with reprisals if it was impeded.</p>
<p>The connection between the flotilla’s organizer, the Turkish-based IHH (Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief), and Hamas is well documented, and it created a stir when Hamas leader Khaled Mashal was officially invited to Ankara in 2006.</p>
<p>Ankara’s support for Iran’s nuclear program, ostensibly for peaceful purposes, is likewise a cause for concern in the Western world, and President Abdullah Gül has admitted in an interview with <em>Forbes </em>magazine that “it is their final aspiration to have a nuclear weapon in the end.”</p>
<p>Turkey and Syria have agreed on a long-term strategic partnership and Erdogan continues to defend Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir (who is on the International Criminal Court’s wanted list) with the claim that “a Muslim can never commit genocide.”</p>
<p>Also alarming is the secret meeting between Prime Minister Erdogan and a Sudanese financier, Dr. Fatih al-Hassanein, during an Arab League summit in Khartoum in 2006. Dr. al-Hassanein is believed to have ties with al-Qaeda and other Islamist movements (e.g. in Bosnia).</p>
<p>What has caused another stir is the friendship between Prime Minister Erdogan and a Saudi businessman, Yassin al-Qadi, who, according to the U.S. Treasury and the United Nations Security Council, is a major financier of Islamic terrorism. Erdogan’s advisor and co-founder of the AKP, Cüneyd Zapsu, was also al-Qadi’s partner.</p>
<p>Erdogan defended al-Qadi publicly on Turkish television, declaring: “I trust him the same way I trust my father.” And a case against al-Qadi was dropped when in 2006 the Chief Public Prosecutor decided: “Al-Qadi is a philanthropic businessman and no connection has been found between him and terrorist organizations.”</p>
<p>The truth is beginning to catch up with Erdogan. Last week, in an interview given to the <em>Wall Street Journal, </em>Fethullah Gülen, who, although a resident in the USA, is reckoned to be Turkey’s most influential religious leader, criticized the Gaza flotilla. He also commented: “.. some people in the United States consider Turkey as sitting at the epicenter of radicalism.&#8221;</p>
<p>It is now up to the hot-tempered Mr. Erdogan and his government to dispel this image &#8212; or to continue confirming it.</p>
<p><strong><em><span style="font-weight: normal;">Robert Ellis</span></em></strong><strong><em><span style="font-weight: normal;"> is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish and international press.</span></em></strong></p>
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		<title>Turkey Turns on Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/askar-askarov/turkey-turns-on-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=turkey-turns-on-israel</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 04:28:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Askar Askarov]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Erdogan exposes his fangs to the Jewish state.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/erdogan-hamas.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-62145" title="erdogan hamas" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/erdogan-hamas.jpg" alt="" width="485" height="356" /></a></p>
<p>Two weeks after delivering a blow to the U.S.-led efforts to strengthen sanctions against Iran by mediating a uranium exchange agreement involving the Islamic Republic and Brazil, Turkey once again has seized the international spotlight in the wake of the deadly clash between Israeli commandos and armed Turkish activists aboard the Gaza-bound flotilla. Turkey’s central role in both developments is no coincidence. It is a reflection of the current Turkish government’s determined efforts to shed the secular legacy of its predecessors, to consolidate power at home, and to align the country with the Islamic world – which means a collision course with America and, especially, with Israel.</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>The flotilla ship, the <em>Mavi Marmara</em>, originated from the Turkish port, Antalya and the majority of those killed and wounded in the confrontation with Israeli commandos were Turkish citizens. While Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns Israel “not to test its patience,” Turkey is leading the international chorus of denunciations against the Jewish state. While it may appear as if the latest controversy is one more bloody chapter in the long saga of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the deadly confrontation in the Mediterranean is in reality more about Turkey’s destiny and its upcoming and planned confrontation with Israel.</p>
<p>The ruling party in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), seems to be driven by two main factors. On the eve of the upcoming national elections, the AKP is desperate to stave off defeat at the hands of the surging opposition. Under such circumstances, the AKP seeks to exploit people’s sense of patriotism and religious solidarity with Muslim Palestinians by forcing a confrontation with Israel. However, it would be wrong to attribute the behavior of the AKP government to Machiavellian instincts alone. The religious and political forces behind the AKP, long suppressed and dormant in republican and secular Turkey, believe in the idea of a transcendent Islamic identity and reject the concept of a secular nation state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.</p>
<p>The objective of AKP Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to do away with Turkey&#8217;s republican system. The actions of his administration have eroded Turkey’s standing with the West and now, with the flotilla incident, a fundamental shift has transpired in Turkish foreign policy. This shift did not occur overnight. In retrospect, the AKP&#8217;s refusal to grant passage to U.S. troops on the eve of the Iraq War in 2003 was the opening act of the distancing between Ankara and Washington. The result of the Turkish denial of invasion routes from the north, and hence, the forced concentration of U.S. military operations in the Shia-populated south, no doubt contributed to the rise of the insurgency in the Sunni Triangle and increased casualties. In 2005, Turkey itself became the victim of the anarchy in Iraq as the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) expanded its base in Iraqi Kurdistan and launched deadly attacks on Turkish targets. Ankara threatened Washington with the invasion of northern Iraq. Loath to wreck its relations with the long-standing ally, the U.S. accommodated the Turkish demand by supplying it with satellite intelligence and leaning heavily on the Kurdish authorities in the region to crack down on PKK. US-Turkish relations now seemed cordial on the surface. But the goodwill between the two nations evaporated rather quickly. A public survey in 2007 showed, for instance, that only nine percent of the Turks had favorable views toward the United States.</p>
<p>There is a proverb in Turkish: When you cannot beat the donkey, punch the saddle. It would be tempting to surmise that since Erdogan lacks the resources and capacity to pick a fight with the United States, Israel became the next obvious target. But the situation is more complicated. Unlike Islamic Iran, where Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini distinguished America and Israel as, respectively, the Great and Little Satan for decades, Turkey maintained a solid military alliance with Israel. Turning the &#8220;Little Satan” into an enemy in the Turkish public eye was no small feat. For years, the Israelis had been actively involved in the upgrading of Turkish fighter planes and weaponry. The two countries did not just share military technology; they had also shared common enemies. Just as Syria posed a threat to Israeli national security, the government of Hafez Assad laid claims to Turkish territories and harbored PKK leaders in its territories. Oriented toward the West, Turkey’s relations with other Arab countries were lukewarm at best. After all, most Turks never forgot what they regarded as the Arab betrayal of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War when many Arabs sided against the Turks and their German patrons and fought for the British in what they saw as a war of independence against Turkish domination.</p>
<p>The Erdogan government viewed repairing relations with the Arab world as essential to its domestic as well as global agenda. The key figure in the tectonic shift was the architect of the new Turkish foreign policy, Ahmet Davutoglu, who inaugurated a policy called “zero problems with neighbors.” On the surface, it looked as if Davutoglu was the faithful follower of Ataturk’s dictum – “Peace at Home, Peace in the World.” But having been brought up in a religious household and having been a product of the Islamic education system, Davutoglu’s intentions widely differed from those of the founder of the secular state. By establishing warm relations with their country&#8217;s autocratic neighbors to the East, the new Turkish government had, in fact, begun quietly steering Turkey away from the West. All along, the AKP leadership insisted on its strong desire to enter the European Union. But behind the scenes, both the European political elite and the Turkish leadership shared a similar objective: to keep Turkey away from Europe and, as the AKP hoped, to integrate Turkey with the rest of the Islamic community of nations. This way, the Europeans would be free, despite their public statements, from a secret fear – an EU with millions of Turks. In its turn, the AKP would get an eastward looking Turkey with autocratic tendencies and Islamist orientation. Bashing and isolating Israel was an integral part of the strategy that accompanied epic changes in Turkish politics.</p>
<p>To accomplish its objectives with regard to Israel, the Erdogan government took an unusual route. Abandoning the long-standing tradition of non-interference in the Mideast conflict, in 2006, Ankara took the initiative to mediate peace between Israel and Syria. As the negotiations went forward, the Israelis began to realize that the so-called mediation was in fact a cover by the Turkish Islamists to engage in deeper contact with Israeli enemies without provoking concern in the mass Turkish domestic public or in the West. How else could the leader of a secular republic and NATO ally justify shaking hands with the representative of Hamas? With the eruption of war in Gaza in 2008, the Erdogan government openly sided with Israel’s enemies by issuing severe criticism of Israel.</p>
<p>During this period, anti-Israel hysteria began to grip Turkish society. The Turks began boycotting Israeli goods en masse. In Ankara, the Israeli basketball team was run off the court by mobs shouting “Allah Akbar.” Israeli-Turkish hostility escalated further after the shocking confrontation between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Shimon Peres at Davos where the Turkish leader called the Nobel Peace Prize winner a “murderer.”  In the ensuing months, a Turkish soap-opera TV series portrayed Israelis as bloodthirsty child-killers and lionized a fictional<strong> </strong>film<strong> </strong>secret agent who shoots and kills a treacherous-looking Israeli ambassador who is engaged in trading body-parts – classic anti-Semitic themes.</p>
<p>The recent incident in the Mediterranean has now greatly escalated tensions between Turkey and Israel. But the progression of events suggests something far more sinister and disturbing with regard to Turkey’s trajectory as a nation. In 1923, when Ataturk established the republic, he repudiated the expansionist ambitions of the Ottoman Empire in favor a peaceful, inward-looking nation state. Having seen his share of dreadful fighting, Ataturk did not wish his nation to become embroiled in territorial conflicts with its neighbors. To accomplish that task, he enacted reforms in politics and society that sought to make Turkey more like France rather than Egypt.</p>
<p>Ataturk’s philosophy of governance turned out to be a spectacular success. Since 1923, with the exception of the Cyprus invasion in 1974, Turkey has successfully managed to avoid being drawn into conflicts and thus saved the lives of millions of its citizens from the murderous currents of the 20th century. Turkey’s success in foreign policy did not just emanate from its peace-loving Kemalist philosophy, but was owed to the wise investment of its republican leadership in the alliance with the West, specifically with the United States. Without the support of Washington and its alliance with NATO, it is doubtful that Turkey would have succeeded in fending off pressures from the USSR to the north and Syria to the southeast. Moreover, its strong ties with the West also enabled Turkey to build a modern military that served as a potent deterrent against aggression. The Erdogan government clearly views this policy as the reduction of Turkey’s status as a global player and has decided to do away with it and replace it with a more aggressive, externally focused policy.</p>
<p>Even the Ottoman Empire, which the AKP government is clearly seeking to emulate, had turned westward after its defeats in the 18<sup>th</sup> century &#8212; long before Ataturk’s radical push for cultural reformation. It should be noted that much of the Tanzimat reforms that brought changes to the Ottoman socio-political infrastructure were inspired by the imperial envoys’ observations in the capitals of Europe. During the Crimean War of 1853-56, the Turks fought side by side with the British and French soldiers against the Russian armies. Moreover, the goodwill between the Turks and the Jews dates back to 1492 when Sultan Bayezid II welcomed the Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of King Ferdinand of Spain. According to renowned historian of Islam, Bernard Lewis, “the Jews were not just permitted to settle in the Ottoman lands, but were encouraged, assisted and sometimes even compelled.&#8221; The Ottoman leadership viewed the Jews as an industrious group whose economic success would bring generous revenues to the state treasury, and treated them with courtesy.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s brand of Islamism and anti-Semitism is not entirely new or original. It was always there within certain elements of the population. But coupled with an ideological zeal and thirst for power, it now threatens to undo most of the accomplishments of the Turkish republic. Erdogan and those around him do not wear turbans or mullah-style robes, but the illusion of a golden Islamic past under the first four caliphs in the 8th century has been drilled into them at the madrases they attended when they were young. Even more powerful than the ideological sympathy for Islamic solidarity is Erdogan’s desire to retain internal political power at all cost. He is an Islamist, but the most important feature distinguishing Erdogan from all previous heads of the Turkish republic is his drive to dismantle all checks and balances to his power. Erdogan’s increasing assault on the top leaders of the military that have long been viewed as the guardians of the Kemalist democracy, together with his “reforms” of the court system and of the constitution, has served the aim of keeping the AKP in power long enough to change the character of the Turkish state. In that sense, Erdogan’s struggle is mostly a domestic one &#8211; at this moment, at least.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, Erdogan has been especially alarmed by the rise of an opposition leader in the person of Kemal Kilicdaroglu. In the aftermath of the resignation of the disgraced leader of the Republican People’s Party, Deniz Baykal, who was videotaped having sex with one of his political aides, Kilicdaroglu has emerged as a promising leader and the new face of the Kemalist opposition. Affectionately called &#8220;The Turkish Gandhi&#8221; by the Turkish people, Kilicdaroglu inspires them with qualities rare for a Turkish politician. He is competent, humble and not corrupt. In the last congress of the party, just prior to the flotilla incident, Kilicdaroglu vowed to defeat the AKP in the upcoming national elections and form the next government. In the face of a serious internal political challenge, Erdogan believes he has found an easy formula of drumming up popularity at home by provoking Israel.</p>
<p>There is, however, a price to be paid for the sinister methods by which Erdogan has sought to manipulate pubic opinion. As the Islamist leader stokes the fires of hatred against the Jewish state, he is dragging Turkey further out of its safety zone and toward uncharted territory. Erdogan may reap personal dividends from throwing stones at Israel, but for a country with a substantial Kurdish minority that grows increasingly restless in its aspirations for independence, expressing outrage at the alleged oppression of the Palestinians may spell disaster. The segment of Turkish society that supports Erdogan’s policies vis-à-vis Israel might also start to recognize its own share of responsibility for the reckless actions of its government.</p>
<p>Perhaps some of the AKP’s ambitions emanate from the fact that for nearly a century, Turkey has not fought a major war. Not a single living Turk has a memory of the calamities that ripped the Turkish society apart in the beginning of the 20th century. Following the loss of millions of Turkish lives, leaders such as Ataturk developed a strong distaste for the type of adventurism that now characterizes the behavior of the Erdogan government on the international stage. Thanks to the wisdom of its traditional experience, the Turkish homeland has not come under an attack during its entire existence as a republic. The Turks will only keep the peace if they can keep the republic.</p>
<p><em>Askar Askarov received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland in 2007. He is as an instructor at the Elliott School of International Affairs.</em></p>
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