"Victory Belongs to the Faithful" : Erdogan

 

Monday, July 25, 2016

"Victory Belongs to the Faithful": Erdogan

"[This] raises troubling questions, if accused people are seen on television or photos bearing clear traces of physical violence."
Steffen Seibert, German government spokesman

"Right now law is suspended. We see investigations going on without any rule of law. Yes, the military intervention was stopped, the military dictatorship was stopped, but right now we see they are trying to build a civilian dictatorship."
Sercan Aran, deputy head, Ankara Bar Association human rights commission

"We are doing everything according to the law."
"The idea that Turkey, a country seeking European Union membership, would not respect the law is absurd."
"All we care about is concrete evidence of complicity in this grave assault."
Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity 

"If they try to record signs of torture, they face threats and violence from the police. A colleague that tried to photograph evidence of torture was made to erase the photos."
Doguan Togue Cankurt, lawyer, Ankara

"There are a litany of abuses that have been reported to us. There are serious allegations of widespread mistreatment and mutually corroborating reports going beyond beatings to high levels of abuse."
"And if they [Turkish authorities] don't have concrete evidence, they shouldn't be detaining them [detainees suspected of association with Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Erdogan accuses of leading the coup]."
Andrew Gardner, researcher, Amnesty International

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends an interview with Reuters at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

In Ankara, crowds chant: "Here is the army, here is the commander!" calling out for the government to reintroduce the death penalty for coup plotters. Which their president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, beaming benevolently at his faithful supporters, is most pleased to consider. Serendipitously, it was his very own thought, as well. And as a skilled manipulator of public opinion and support for himself, one can only wonder at the coincidence.

The international community looks on with fascination at the images of bruised and battered prisoners, those detained who appear, strangely, to have been violently mishandled in their prison cells. Germany in particular, suffering its own hell paved with good intentions, is hoping that Turkey's crisis will soon be settled, bloodlessly, so as to have minimal impact on Ankara's agreement to stem the flow of migrants into Europe.

For the moment, and perhaps for a much longer moment in time, longer than the three months stated, Turkey will remain in a state of emergency. A state that confers upon Mr. Erdogan unlimited powers of discretionary decision-making. Required, of course, to enable him to counter threats to Turkish democracy, which he has carefully been protecting in the exemplary manner he has become famous for, particularly among the judiciary, the military and the news media.

Now, his democratic credentials have been extended with tender, loving care to the thousands of civil servants, lawyers, police, military personnel and incautious citizens who have been foolish enough to think that a canny politician like Erdogan could be defanged so easily. What it brings to mind for those who are historical-minded is the Spanish Inquisition and Stalin's Great Terror; it is utterly amazing what gentle persuasion to peoples' better natures can produce in self-incriminatory confessions.

"The rationale for the Great Terror was the supposed discovery of a diabolical conspiracy whose object was nothing less than the destruction of the Soviet Union, a notion that echoes the rationale of the Inquisition in its long war on heresy The conspirators were accused of putting themselves in service to the worst enemies of the Bolshevik Revolution, including Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. The reality is that 'the whole alleged plot was a vast cycle of frame-ups by Stalin and his entourage' all of it intended to eliminate his rivals and strengthen his authority as the absolute dictator of the Soviet Union. Significantly, the arch-villains in Stalin's show trials were men whose roles in the Bolshevik Revolution had been equal to or arguably even greater than his own, including Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, and Nikolai Bukharin."
Jonathan Kirsch, The Grand Inquisitor's Manual

Has a familiar ring to it, don't you think? Fethullah Gulen was an Erdogan confidante and supporter. Until the time came when he was disgusted with the corruption of the Justice and Development Party and its Islamist leader. Said to be more moderate an Islamist than Erdogan they had a parting of the ways. And the socially, culturally, religiously influential Gulen departed in self-exile, out of the menacing reach of Erdogan. That hasn't stopped him from pressuring the U.S. for extradition so he can place the cleric on trial in democratic Turkey.

President Erdogan informs his public that the state of emergency in Turkey will counter threats to Turkish democracy. Even his opponents and other Turkish political parties swallowed that hook. His true critics are swinish enough to urge restraint, however, fearing basic freedoms will be violated. Of course, the Justice and Development Party (that most Orwellian of language usage) didn't need a declared state of emergency to proceed with mass arrests, mass firings, closure of hundreds of Gulen-linked schools, come to think of it.

Courage beyond the line of civil duty is being exhibited by the Ankara Bar Association with its 24-hour hotline and crisis centre, where terror-stricken Turks can reach out to find out where their missing relatives are. And when they are informed where their loved ones are being held incommunicado and without legal representation, they are also admonished not to attempt to visit them: "Don't go", they are told, "they aren't letting anyone visit".

In defence of democracy, needless to say.

Why Is Turkey Still a NATO Member?

"The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea."

"From the first day I entered the political arena, I made it clear that I did not want to fight these endless, senseless wars -- especially those that don't benefit the United States ... We expect Turkey to abide by all of its commitments, and we continue to monitor the situation closely."

"I told Turkey if they do anything outside of what we think is humane ... they could suffer the wrath of an extremely decimated economy."

U.S. President Donald J.Trump

 

"We will clash against the Turks to not allow them to cross the border. We will use all our possibilities against Turkish aggression."

"[The SDF had turned back the ground incursion near the border town of Til Abyad.] No advance as of now."

"[ISIS] 'sleeper cells' [attacked Kurdish positions in Raqqa, Syria, in the early hours]." 

Mustafa Bali, spokesman, Syrian Democratic Forces 

A photo taken from Turkey's Sanliurfa province shows smoke rising at the site of Ras al-Ain

"[The border areas of northeast Syria] are on the edge of a possible humanitarian catastrophe." 

"[We call upon the international community and those countries fighting against ISIS] to carry out their responsibilities [to avoid a] possible impending humanitarian disaster."

Syrian Democratic Forces,  General Command

 

 "[The country had\s] completed our preparations and action plan." 

"[We are ready to launch a] ground and air operation [east of the Euphrates river, with the goal of establishing] peace [by clearing the region of] terrorists."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 

Turkish army soldiers drive towards the border with Syria near Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on October 8, 2019

"Turkey is one of the countries most affected by DAESH's bloody activities and has fought against this terrorist organization both domestically and beyond its borders with increasing tempo and intensity", the blatantly disingenuous statement by the Turkish Defence Ministry, when it was clear years ago that Islamic State principals had safe haven in Turkey, and used the country as a black market conduit for the crude oil shipments it extracted from the oil installations it commandeered in Iraq and Syria.

 

Turkey's Minister of National Defense, Hulusi Akar, tweeted that the United States, United Nations and NATO, among others, had been informed of its intended offensive operation in northeast Syria at 7 a.m. ET. The response from the United Nations and NATO is absolutely deafening. No ostensible objections whatever. It appears that Syria's mass murdering tyrant Bashar al-Assad was right when he warned in the early stages of the Syrian civil war that disrupting Syria would have far-reaching, profound effects across the Middle East and beyond.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's long-wished-for 'safe corridor' between Syria and Turkey (on the Syrian side) where his intention has always been to forcefully move the Kurdish presence away from the border where the YPG and the PKK have been too comfortable in their shared antagonism against Turkey and its response to their push for a greater Kurdistan to be established on its own heritage territory absorbed within the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey all of which refuse to surrender to the 40 million Kurds what is long overdue.

A tank trundles down from a truck as Turkish armed forces approach the border with Syria near Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on October 8, 2019.BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images)

The perpetually bad-natured, demanding, tyrannical Erdogan has appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump's vanity in pressing him to make a decision he has demanded to yank the Kurdish presence in Syria further from the Turkish border. Resisted halfheartedly to this point, though Trump has always intended to withdraw the U.S. presence from the area. One angrily demanding telephone conversation on Sunday succeeded in convincing Trump that the Kurds were no longer worth defending, despite the U.S. dependence on the Kurdish valiant fighting spirit to challenge and defeat the Islamic State.

Now, the tens of thousands of ISIL terrorists held by the SDF are in danger of breaking free from prison camps no longer as closely guarded by Kurdish soldiers, hurriedly dispatched as a suddenly-imposed priority to the scenes of Turkish attack, in defence of Kurdish towns and villages in direct danger of aerial bombardment and Howitzer attacks by the second largest military in NATO, and one of the best equipped, prepared to shed as much Kurdish blood as it will take to cleanse the border area of their presence under guise of fighting "terrorists".

Islamicizing Turkish Children

"Do you expect that a [political] party with a conservative, democratic identity would raise an atheist youth?"
"You may have such an aim, but we [Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party] don't."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey speaks with supporters in Ankara. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/AP)

"The [controversially violent demons] film teaches [vulnerable young students that] if you renounce your faith you will have this horror [visited upon you as punishment from on high]."
"They [the current government] are stealing the children's future."
Erdogan Delioglu, Istanbul parent

"....Turkish officials have broken with decades of precedent in what is still, at least nominally, a secular republic: they have begun describing the country’s military deployment in Syria as 'jihad.' During the first two days of the operation, which began on Jan. 20, the government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs ordered all of Turkey’s nearly 90,000 mosques to broadcast the 'Al-Fath' verse from the Koran — 'the prayer of conquest' — through the loudspeakers on their minarets. Mainstreaming jihad, which sanctions violence against those who “offend Islam,” is a crucial step in draping the sheath of sharia over a society. Sadly, Turkey seems to be slowly moving along that path."
"In recent years, the government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been limiting individual freedoms, as well as sanctioning individuals who “insult Islam” or neglect Islamic practices. Since November 2017, the national police — controlled by the central government — has been monitoring online commentary on religion and suppressing freedom of expression when they find such commentary 'offensive to Islam'."

"Education is a prime pillar in Erdogan’s efforts to throw a membrane of sharia over the country. Turkey’s education system, like the police, falls under control of the central government, and the Ministry of Education has been pressuring citizens to conform to conservative Islamic practices in public schools."

"The government is formally inserting religious practices into the public education system by requiring all newly-built schools in Turkey to house Islamic prayer rooms. Recently, for instance, a local education official in Istanbul demanded that teachers bring pupils to attend morning prayers at local mosques."

Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

'The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that's what the government fears'

REUTERS/Umit Bektas

There can be little doubt that Recep Tayyip Erdogan was disappointed in the results of the last election when his Islamist party lost clout in their majority status, and so did he, which he made up for by attaining a majority government only with the aid of an alliance with another Turkish Islamist party, but acting as though the people of Turkey had given him and his party carte blanche to completely change Turkey's traditional secularist, democratic politics from the Kemalist model to the new, vibrant and triumphant Erdogan model.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, historically the hero of Turkey who turned his country away from Islamic backwardness to face Europe and constitutionally adapt to democracy is now a has-been model, with Erdogan's vision of a Sharia-based Islamist Turkey in the ascendancy. The country remains locked in the national emergency situation that Erdogan imposed on it in the wake of the unsuccessful attempt at removing him and his government through a military coup. Tens of thousands of Turkish police, justices, lawyers, journalists, teachers, unionists, military and others accused of plotting to overthrow his government have been imprisoned.

  
Public schools are being closed without warning, replaced by religious schools. Presidential diktat has scrapped exams, and tens of thousands of public teachers have been dismissed while religious groups have been enabled without teaching certificates to teach in schools completely lacking parental consent. Erdogan's June 24 re-election gives him the confidence to continue apace with his plan to continue the state of emergency and institute wholesale changes in the nation's constitution; its political, social, educational and religious character.

His indomitable will to completely remake Turkey in his own image, and his steady transfer of authority into his own hands now unchallenged sees him moving forward to that end, to create a population steeped in religious devotion from an early academic stage to his fundamentalist view of Islam and its place in every aspect of Turkish life. Leading parents around the country to protest his changes, while doing whatever they can to find schools of their choice to entrust the future of their children with in a standard, Western-style curriculum.

Turkey is destined to become Erdogan's private republic in homage to Islamist ideals. He intends to "raise a pious generation", claiming that religious schools represent a democratization of education, reversing "discrimination" that prevailed under the secular republic. It should be pointed out that the main presidential challenger, Muharrem Ince himself, sought to make the issue of religious schools his own, considering them to be important to the nation, but that attendance should be optional, in hopes of uniting the electorate in his favour.

Imam Hatip religious schools are now replacing secular public schools. While they make use of the national curriculum, half of the educational courses are religious in nature, core classes remain the Quran and Arabic. All of which more than explains just how and why it is that Muslim countries remain backward, failing to advance socially, educationally, technologically, with an emphasis on basic human rights and equality. Under Erdogan these religious schools have expanded from the 450 that existed fifteen years ago to the 4,500 that currently exist nationwide.

Among the aspiring middle class of Istanbul and other major Turkish cities parents complain of Erdogan's aggressive agenda to push religious instruction for their children, identifying that very instruction as deceptive, and damaging to normal educational standards. As a result, parents withdraw their children from religious schools to send them to private schools or alternately make do with technical and vocational schools. And according to the Education Ministry, 69 percent of places in Imam Hatip schools are unfilled, yet the schools keep proliferating.

A class of twelve-year-olds was exposed to a film in the Imam Hatip school so violent and frightening, with an abundance of punishing demons that parents said their children had nightmares. Despite the complaints, the film remains on the curriculum ostensibly to 'teach' children the punishment that demons mete out to insufficiently pious children failing to take their Koranic lessons seriously enough.

Protestors march with placards reading "enough! Don't turn our schools to Imam Hatips" in Kadikoy in Istanbul (AFP)

Saudi Arabia invested in madrassas, religious schools built with vast oil reserve profits all over the Muslim world to teach impressionable young Muslims Islamist values. Often in a language they could neither speak nor understand; Arabic. But these schools' alumnae formed the basis for the jihadi groups later formed to torment the world as terrorist groups, from al-Qaeda to the Taliban, Al Shabab to Islamic State. Turkey is planning on its own home-made jihadi graduates to spread the word of Islam and glorify it.

And to the Most Deserving Canadidate -- Goes the Win!

"I accept the election results, [despite some votes being stolen, the overall result was not in question]."
"We will live the consequences of having one-man rule in the legislature, judiciary and government. I will keep up the fight as someone who got the approval of one person among every three in Turkey."
“If you have lost, you have lost. To say, I don’t accept this result, so let’s take to the streets is not democracy."

"A single person is becoming the head of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary and this is a concern for a threat to the survival of the country. Turkey has departed from democratic values and Turkey has broken its ties with the parliamentary system which it had."

"We're now in a one-man rule -- there's no mechanism to prevent arbitrary rule. We continue to have great concerns about this situation."

Muharrem Ince, social democratic (Republican People's Party) presidential runner-up

"The winners of the June 24 elections are Turkey, the Turkish nation, sufferers of our region and all oppressed (people) in the world."
"Turkey has decided to take the side of growth, development, investment, enrichment and a reputable, honorable and influential country in all areas in the world."
"I would like to congratulate our nation once again. This has been another test of democracy and we have passed this test successfully."
Turkey's President-for-Life Recep Tayyip Erdogan 

Turkey's President and leader of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses supporters

"The issues of Jerusalem and Gaza, while conducive to Erdogan’s campaign were not a critical factor. The opposition was in concurrence with his position on these issues and even challenged him to adopt a tougher approach to Israel."
"The question is broader in my view — what approach will Erdogan adopt after the elections both inward and outward — combative or more conciliatory?"
"From the little we can see already, it seems he will remain a tough critic of the West and, partially as a byproduct, also of Israel."
Gallia Lindenstrauss, research fellow, Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute for National Security Studies (INS)

After sixteen years in power, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP: strange how dictators love the words 'justice' and 'development') are firmly ensconced to continue to lead Turkey in the direction and in the manner that continues the stranglehold they manipulated themselves into with their first majority when Erdogan was Prime Minister and followed the example of Russia's Vladimir Putin to exchange positions and finally alter their constitutions to enable them to become presidents-for-life, squashing opposition and streamrolling the political process.

Their goals realized, they reign unopposed, but not without resorting when they see the need of it, to coersion, violence and corruption. All of which provides them with their aspirational goals fulfilled. That both had sumptuous, costly palaces built to reflect their exalted status as the heart and soul and tyrant of their countries speaks as well to the prideful conceit of their self-image. Even so, Erdogan left nothing to chance with his eye on achieving the majority he wanted to secure his future. His alliance with the Nationalist Action Party MHP was his insurance against failure.

So when the vote was declared in his favour with a 52-percent majority that was only attained with the MHP's winning seats included. Erdogan had wanted 55 percent for a more unequivocal majority, not the 42 percent the AKP got, but he will settle for what he has. The far-right party with which his own is now twinned has an agenda not completely unlike his own. Neither can be too pleased that the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party managed close to 12 percent of the vote, enough to seat them in Parliament, a goal higher than any other party was required to gain.

It is telling that congratulations to Erdogan did not pour forth effusively from the European Union members, who remain quietly glum over Erdogan's success, speaking little of the alleged corruption that brought him his win. The matter of European Union membership for Turkey has been an issue that has chafed relations between Turkey and the EU for decades, the EU waiting for Turkey's human rights record to reach the point of acceptance. And now, of a surety, it never will.

Erdogan's uncontested, expanded powers as newly re-elected president with a majority will see Turkey's transition from a parliamentary system of government to what Erdogan has long pined for; a presidential system giving him vastly expanded powers with the authority to impose states of emergency and to issue decrees, all of which Erdogan has promised voters would result in prosperity and stability for the country.

Turks themselves certainly felt strongly enough about the issues -- which sees the people strongly in opposite camps -- to bring out a hefty percentage of potential voters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the presidential palace in Ankara. Photo: Reuters / Kayhan Ozer

Turkish War Crimes in Afrin, Syria

"All care is being taken. Right now the first civilians are being taken out of Afrin in vehicles through a special corridor."
"Operation Olive Branch [offers the opportunity to move three million Syrian refugees in Turkey into Afrin as] rightfully Arab land." 
"We aim to give Afrin back to its rightful owners."
"Today, as the operation entered its 54th day, almost 3,500 terrorists have been neutralized and about 1,300 square kilometers of land cleared of terrorists."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

"The Kurdish YPG forces were celebrated for defeating ISIL in Raqqa less than a year ago, and now, as Turkey invades Afrin, the world is silent."
"There is the complicity of Western governments who have allowed their NATO ally Turkey to carry out an unprovoked, illegal and illegitimate invasion using U.K. jets, German tanks and Italian helicopters."
Rosa Gilbert, co-secretary, Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign, U.K.

"Where is the international community? Why don't they cry tears for all Syrian civilians, not only some?"
"They are too scared to criticize their Turkish ally."
Ahmed Murad, Afrin resident

"[Turkish forces have been carrying out] demographic change [in Kurdish territory captured in Afrin]."
Redur Xelil, head, foreign relations, Syrian Democratic Forces

AFP   As Turkey draws near Syria's Afrin Syrian civilians flee - March 13, 2018

The Syrian city of Afrin has had its water and electricity cut off by invading Turkish troops, tasked by Turkey's president to cleanse the town of Afrin, 90 villages and another town under YPG control completely encircled by the Turkish military -- of their Kurdish residents. Since these places are home to 90% of the entire population who are Kurds the result will be almost three-quarters of a million Kurds will be forcefully displaced, a war crime if ever there was one. This, caused by a NATO member, a situation that should cause all other members of NATO to hang their heads in shame.

Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the only road leading out of the area remains in range of Turkish fire, and the Turkish military has no intention of hold back on their firing. The road is effectively off limits for the hundreds of thousands of people who would attempt to evacuate the area and leave their homes. An estimated 700,000 people live in the area being encircled and closed off from escape. An escape that Erdogan claims to be possible through the corridor he has opened even while his forces continue to bomb the last remaining road out of the area.

In the town of Afrin itself, over 350,000 people are trapped. Although the town center of Afrin had a pre-war population of 50,000, the effect of the seven-year-long Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011 led to the growth of the population, seeking haven wherever they could find it. The Kurdish People's
Protection Units (YPG) controls Afrin, bordered to the north and west by Turkey, on the south by government Syrian territory. Last month the Syrian regime deployed forces to aid Afrin's southern outskirts in response to the Kurdish plea for help. Turkish positions were shelled by Syrian troops.

Syrian Kurds deliberately avoided direct confrontation with the Syrian regime while both were engaged in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and rebel groups. A situation which seemed reasonable at the time, despite the Kurdish desire for complete autonomy from Damascus. Now, although Turkey has aligned itself with Russia and Iran with respect to upholding the Syrian regime, Turkey and Syria continue to confront one another albeit through their proxies.

In its bid to control the entire of Afrin and oust the majority Kurdish population, Turkey has seen some of the rural areas fall. In its strike toward densely populated Afrin city the potential for massive civilian casualties loom large. A matter of as little concern to Erdogan, considering the Kurds' presence a solvable inconvenience, as Bashar al-Assad's unconcern over the plight of his own Sunni Syrian population whom he has targeted as 'terrorists' with barrel bombs and chemical attacks over the years claiming over a half-million lives in the process.

The purpose of the cynically-named "Operation Olive Branch" was aimed at clearing out YPG militants from along Turkey's southern frontier. While thousands of civilians have left Afrin to escape the violence, tens of thousands more have been left trapped with few resources available to them. The water supply cut off, bread scarcely to be found anywhere. A humanitarian crisis is building and becoming ever more urgent since Turkish forces seized control of the local dam.

The YPG has been a loyal and useful fighting group servicing the U.S. military which has relied on them in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. And as horrendously vicious in their penchant for atrocities ISIL fighters have been, their victim count was nowhere near approaching that of the Syrian regime, the Russian air bombardment, Hezbollah and Shiite militias and now Turkey's military hounding and violating the human rights of the Kurdish population.

Erdogan sees himself as the arbiter of land dispersal, planning to settle some of the millions of Sunni Syrians displaced by the Syrian regime on the border in Afrin, to match the displacement and soon-to-be refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Kurds whom his military has been pounding with artillery. He has declared the land he is cleansing of any Kurdish presence as "rightfully Arab land", a warrior of Islam set on violence and bloodshed of his own making.

Of course there is the glaring issue of human rights and heritage being denied Kurds, who want nothing more than what other national groups attain by right of residence and culture and heritage, the recognition that parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria immorally and illegally occupy Kurdish land. They all, and Turkey the most aggressively of all, denies Kurds their heritage, and their rightful occupancy of their legacy geography. Land that is "rightfully Kurdish" remains ignored by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Western nations sharing place with Turkey in NATO membership should be cringing at their cowardice in failing to confront Erdogan.

Erdogan, Making Himself Invincible

"Municipal services have stalled."
"That's why President Erdogan is saying we need a shake-up."
Presidential adviser, anonymous, Turkey

"We are a young population. The median age is something like 32."
Mehdi Eker, vice-president, Justice and Development Party

"[Retiring, forcibly] not because I am unsuccessful, not because I am tired."
"Only and only, I am fulfilling Recep Tayyip Erdogan's request."
Melih Gokcek, former Ankara mayor

Ankara's eccentric mayor, Melih Gokcek, resigned Saturday after 23 years of running the Turkish capital, becoming the latest local politician to bow to pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he shakes up his party.

"The greatest secret of his success has always been teamwork."
"Step by step, he purged everyone who is capable of standing on their own feet. He does not share power anymore, he allocates."
Rusen Cakir, founder, Medyascope TV

There are always reasons that can be conjured up handily to explain any situation, and there are always seasons when it becomes convenient for those reasons to be aired as legitimate and meaningful for any entity to surge ahead with its designed purpose. In this instance, reason and season come together in a timely way for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, consolidating his imperial position as president-for-life of that great democratic nation, Turkey.

Leaving no stone unturned, and no individual in office who has proven he cannot pull his weight in authority dedicated to a designated cause; that of unquestioned support to Erdogan's agenda, those whose performance has been judged sub-par have become expendable irrespective of the fact that they represent elected mayors of Turkey's largest cities for whom the electorate has high regard in their effectiveness.

Judged solely by the fact that in 17 of Turkey's largest 30 cities his pet project referendum to confer  unlimited powers on this Islamist president of Turkey there was a failure to assent to the April referendum, the mayors of those cities, held responsible for the lack of support, are now paying the freight associated with their inability to carry the people to vote in favour of a regime and a president they may view as somewhat more corrupt than they are willing to countenance

In the wake of the imprisonment and firing of tens of thousands of police officers, judges, civil servants, journalists and academics following last year's failed coup attempt, Erdogan saw fit to replace mayors of 82 municipalities out of a total of 103 in the Kurdish southeast alone. Once his April referendum victory, slight as it was, was secured, he changed 19 seats on the 50-member executive board of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

More than 50,000 people have been arrested and some 150,000 dismissed from their jobs in an ongoing cull in the wake of the failed coup attempt

Though Erdogan remains the most popular politician in Turkey, the party itself has slipped to 43 from 49 percent in popular support, that slippage no doubt having some relation to the voters considering AKP officials and Erdogan family members corruption-tainted, with some government ministers held to have accepted millions in bribes.

In view of the fact that the Turkish population is younger and as such fodder for manipulation in favour of voting for the AKP, some alteration in the social-public covenant and services have been in order, with the new mayor of Ankara signalling his loyalty to Erdogan by lowering the minimum age to hold public office, from 25 to 18.  Another initiative was to extend public transport for all-night operations, a move popular with the young.

The dismissed mayors did not go with good grace into the night of unemployment. Former mayor of Ankara, Melih Gokcek, considering himself unassailable in the position he held securely for 23 years resisted mightily for all the good it did him. For Erdogan, having mayors in Turkey's large cities totally allied with his personal agenda to capture greater power is critical to his end-game.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly accused Dutch and German politicians of acting like "Nazis" and claiming the "spirit of fascism" is rampant in Europe. He later invoked medieval religious wars in the context of escalating tensions between the EU and Turkey. "My dear brothers, a battle has started between the cross and the half moon. There can be no other explanation,"

Turkey, Re-Entering the 19th Century

"This is no less than a revolution to alter public education and assure that a conservative, religious view of the world prevails."
"The reason Turkey is not Pakistan is that generations have been exposed to a secular public education. But for Erdogan, who comes from the other side of the tracks and feels religion was marginalized for decades, this is his revenge."
Soner Cagaptay, director, Turkish Research Program, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

"Turkish school students are currently taught to value Western civilization."
"[The new changes demonstrate that] Turkey is changing its direction and is no longer, by default, a Western state."
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, Impact-se research institute, Jerusalem

'The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that's what the government fears' (file image) REUTERS/Umit Bektas

"You go and give an 18-year old student the right to elect and be elected, but don't give him the right to learn about the theory of evolution...This is being close minded and ignorant."
Mustafa Balbay, opposition Republican People's Party

"[The decision to exclude the theory of evolution was] because it is above the students' level and not directly relevant."
"It is also our duty to fix what has been perceived as wrong. This is why the Islamic law class and basic fundamental religion lectures will include [lessons on] jihad. The real meaning of jihad is loving your nation."
"Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the Education Ministry is to teach every concept deservedly, in a correct way. It is also our job to correct things that are wrongly perceived, seen or taught."
"In this manner, in the lessons on Islamic law and basic religion sciences, there will be [the concept of] jihad. But what is this jihad? What our Prophet [Muhammad] says is that while returning from a war, we are going from a small jihad to a big jihad. What is this big jihad? It is to serve our society, to increase welfare, to ensure peace in society, to serve the society’s needs. The easiest thing is to wage war, to fight. The skill is the difficult one, which is to ensure peace and tranquility."
Ismet Yilmaz, Turkish Minister of Education

"The new policies that ban the teaching of evolution and requiring all schools to have a prayer room, these actions destroy the principle of secularism and the scientific principles of education."
"The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that's what the government fears."
Mehhmet Balik, chairman, Union of Education and Science Workers, Turkey

Objections to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's initiatives in leading Turkey to a bold new direction in line with his favourite motto: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...", are rife. But how else to make faithful soldiers of the upcoming generation than to starve their minds of enquiry and force-feed them the duty of jihad, since after all, it does represent a major tenet of the Koran?

Elementary school children will now have their curricula enriched with the new religion classes where teachers must promote jihad as "love of homeland". Where's the violence in that? It will evolve; they have but to witness how their president-for-life, the noble, regal, honourable Khalif  Erdogan has decreed that dissent, questioning the Koran, much less the will of the president, is punishable by swift and violent repercussions as he defends Islam through jihad.

And high school students? The closing of their minds will henceforth proceed with new textbooks absenting the Darwinian theory of evolution from biology classes. Reckless critics of the forward-looking Justice and Development Party observe an overhaul of over 170 topics the once-secular education system covered in line with its Western orientation. But the 1920s modernization of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is now in full backlash mode, returning it to the days of the Ottoman Empire.

Since the failed military coup of the summer before last, that event itself has become a new topic to be studied by Turkey's students as "a legendary, heroic story". The July 2015 coup attempt led to the summary firing of over 33,000 teachers throughout Turkey. The hundreds of schools that were closed, linked to the Gulenist movement have further impoverished the minds of future Turkish students.

While the Turkish political opposition may be furious at this turn of events, Turks themselves gifted Erdogan with the very special powers he is now using.

The presence of religious schools have proliferated in lock-step with the closure of secular-based education systems. The imam hatip schools indoctrinating Turkish students with the refurbished Turkish Islamist values are more than prepared to promote Erdogan's goal to raise a "pious generation" of education-deficient Turks.

Minister Yılmaz has helpfully pointed out that the new curriculum will also include topics on the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Not that the Turkish government initially supported ISIL, nor that Turkey's Kurds are struggling to achieve sovereignty for their persecuted people, or that Fethullah Gulen is a former colleague and a loyal Turk.

Darwin’s theory of evolution has been excluded from the most recent draft of Turkey’s new national curriculum, which will be released following the Eid al-Fitr holiday  Hurriyet Daily News

“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...”
Read more at http://izquotes.com/quote/227625

Another Successful Foreign Visit By Erdogan

"We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America."
"This is the United States of America. This isn’t Turkey, this isn’t a Third World country, and this kind of thing cannot go un-responded to diplomatically."
U.S. Senator (Arizona Republican) John McCain  

"What we saw yesterday -- a violent attack on a peaceful demonstration -- is an affront to DC values and our rights as Americans. I strongly condemn these actions and have been briefed by Chief Newsham on our response."
"The Metropolitan Police Department will continue investigating the incident and will work with federal partners to ensure justice is served."
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser

A view of a protest that turned violent outside the Turkish embassy in Washington D.C., May 16, 2017. Screenshot via VOA Turkish

"Agents of foreign governments should never be immune from prosecution for felonious behavior."
"To send a clear message that these acts of violence will not be tolerated, I ask that you [Tillerson] immediately look into this matter and bring all appropriate criminal charges before these individuals leave the United States."
Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee

"The violent response of your security detail to peaceful protesters is wholly unacceptable and, unfortunately, reflective of your government’s treatment of the press, ethnic minority groups and political opponents."
"On May 16, 2017, members of your security detail allegedly broke through police lines and violently attacked a small number of protesters outside of Ambassador Kılıç’s residence, wounding at least nine people. Yesterday’s attack, however, was not a isolated incident. Last year some of your supporters and members of your security detail violently clashed with protesters and members of the media at the Brookings Institution."
"The actions of your staff violate the constitutional protections of freedom of the press and freedom of assembly enjoyed by all Americans. Your staff’s blatant violation of these rights on American soil is an affront to those freedoms, and reflects poorly on your government. We have long supported Turkey as a member of NATO, and a key US ally in the region, and we expect conduct more appropriate to our decade’s long partnership."
"We cannot turn a blind eye to these actions at home, and we urge you to hold accountable those members of your staff who violently attacked peaceful protesters in our nation’s capital."
US Senator John McCain and Senator Dianne Feinstein

Clearly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has studied very carefully Western etiquette and diplomacy and found it wanting. Not for him, advice on how to make friends and influence people. His position alone and his religious conviction renders him immune to the normal constraints that convince most people they would do well to refrain from unleashing upon critics the full extent of their powerful wrath and malevolent intent to harm those that insufficiently respect his august person and the office he holds.

In Ankara is it possible that any citizens would mount a protest criticizing the baleful autocracy of a man whose corrupt manipulation of a NATO-linked nation, intent on consolidating his power base at the expense of the continued illusion that Turkey is a democratic country viewing all its citizens equally and with the respect due them? Turks know full well that any such engagement in civil unrest would net them a tenure in an overcrowded prison system, already burgeoning with the presence of those Erdogan accuses of loyalty to his political-religious nemesis.

One of the purposes inherent in his trip to Washington to confer with President Donald Trump was to air grievances that Fethullah Gulen remains out of his grasp, living in the United States, to urge Trump to extradite him so he can be tried for crimes against the Turkish state of sedition, seeking to unseat Erdogan and remove his Justice and Development Party from power. Equally fiercely troublesome to Erdogan is the new administration's decision to finally arm the Syrian YPG, the Kurdish fighting group recognized as the single-most effective militia fighting Islamic State.

According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, a mouthpiece for Erdogan, Brett McGurk, the American envoy to the US-led coalition against Islamic State is "definitely supporting the YPG in Syria", along with Turkey's Kurdish militias, the separatist PKK. President Erdogan would be enormously pleased were his American counterpart to heed his concerns and remove the offending Mr. McGurk, to replace him with someone who views the Kurds as Erdogan does -- terrorists.

Terrorists who fight jihadists roiling the greater Middle East. As opposed to the terrorists posing as presidents who attack and slaughter their own citizens.

It is entirely possible that Mr. Erdogan's argument was sufficiently convincing to Mr. Trump; the two do have, after all, quite a lot in common in their outlook regarding their positions and their very personal entitlements. For Mr. Cavusoglu reports that Mr. Erdogan had been assured once the military operation in Raqqa has succeeded in retaking the city from Islamic State, plans are to return the city to the local Arabs, not the Kurds who consider it a rightful gain reflecting their courage and their sacrifices on behalf of their own populations living there.

Security agents surround Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's vehicle in Washington, DC. Screenshot via Voice of America Turkish

President Trump appears to have felt his meeting with Erdogan went very well. President Trump is particularly amenable to hearing himself praised fulsomely. And Mr. Erdogan was unstinting in his praise knowing full well that like himself, someone like Trump responds well to a show of admiration and respect. Blandishments accomplish much; in return for compliments one responds by offering to agree to at least some of what a petitioner asks for. Mr. Gulen's fate remains unknown. The YPG will know in good time whether their unremitting loyalty to a shared cause with the U.S. will be acknowledged.

And Mr. Trump has not yet responded to the Turkish-style public relations scenario that took place outside the residence of the Turkish Ambassador to the United States, once the state visit between the two Presidents had concluded. The outrage expressed by Americans and their political leaders over this display of goonish arrogance by Turks in another country they happen to be visiting does not resonate well. On the other hand, Mr. Erdogan orchestrated casually what Mr. Trump might himself like to do, if he felt he could, without consequence.

Violent clashes broke out between protesters and supporters of Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington. VOA

President Erdogan's security guards did not, of their own volition, belligerently confront that group of protesters outside the Turkish Ambassador's residence to express their disgust with Ankara's interventions in Syria and Erdogan's targeting of Kurds, let alone domestic affairs in firing tens of thousands of civil servants, police, military officers, lawyers, journalists and others whom he accuses of having taken part in the summer of 2016 attempt at a putsch. A video has surfaced showing without doubt that Erdogan dispatched his security guards to confront the protesters and violently attack them.

Washington police repeatedly instructed the Turkish president's security guards to stand back and desist, and they simply ignored those orders. It was left to the Washington police to attempt to separate the antagonists and to protect the protesters from the clear violence that was being directed against them by these foreign visitors on a diplomatic mission to impress Americans. The result was that eleven people were injured, nine of them sufficiently seriously to be taken to hospital. And most certainly, an impression was made. And duly noted, throughout the world.

There Will Be Repercussions

"[Turkey's] patience has ended. We want to know that our allies will stand not with a terrorist organization, but with us."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

"We hope the U.S. administration will put a stop to this wrong and turn back from it. Such a policy will not be beneficial; you can't be in the same sack as terrorist organizations."
"There is no reality in the comments that a ground operation against Daesh [Islamic State] can only be successful with the YPG. I hope they turn back from this mistake."
"We are carrying out, and will carry out, all necessary diplomatic communications. Our wish is that the U.S. stops this wrong and does what is mandated by our friendship." 
Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli

"[The U.S. has given Ankara few options beyond intensified military action against the YPG which Turkey considers a] direct national security threat."
"Is it going to affect the Raqqa operation? Probably yes. But the problem is, the U.S. is offering nothing -- no way to appease Turkey's security concerns."
Ufuk Ulutas, foreign policy director, Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, Ankara

  U.S. forces are seen at the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) headquarters after it was hit by Turkish airstrikes in Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria April 25, 2017. REUTERS/ Rodi Said/File Photo

Turkey is displeased. As far as Turkey is concerned, support of any kind for any reason, must be withheld from the YPG, the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units and the PKK, since they present an existential threat to Turkey. There will be repercussions, warned Erdogan darkly, should the Trump administration continue on this trajectory. The United States of course, is anything but complacent about Turkey attacking YPG units, has protested those attacks, and has installed a greater American military presence to ensure Turkey takes the full measure of repercussions that would accrue to it, should it continue targeting the Kurdish fighters whom the U.S. relies upon to counter Islamic State.

Message sent, message received. On both sides, although Turkey is concerned only with the message they have sent as a warning to the Americans to proceed no further. "Turkey's message to the Trump administration was that Turkey reserves the right to take military action", according to a senior Turkish official. Military action? Against whom? Certainly they haven't been concentrating on the Islamic State jihadis, but then Turkey has been fairly polarized about their position on ISIL, first supporting them, then, back against the wall as a NATO member, reluctantly countering them.

Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) head a convoy of U.S military vehicles in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo

"[The United States led] open discussions] with Turkey. [The situation] is not always tidy, but we work [together on issues to resolve differences]."
"[Turkey being] the only NATO ally [confronting an insurgency, the U.S. plans to work closely to defend Turkey's southern border]."
"It's Europe's southern border, and we'll stay closely connected."
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis

It isn't all that difficult to imagine, after all, what Turkey's frustrated moves could lead to, in countering the Trump administration's decision to finally supply the Kurdish fighting forces in Syria with the kind of heavy weaponry they require to effectively battle the better-equipped Islamic State militias. There was a taste of that with the strikes Turkey conducted in northern Syria. And that taste could be ratcheted-up to become a full-scale feast beleaguering the Kurds with the superior war machinery of the Turkish military.

The goal to deprive Islamic State of the last of its large population holdings, one that is widely recognized as ISIL's purported capital of its caliphate, would, when successful, strike a deadly blow to their aspirations in direct contrast to where they were over a year ago when they held control of much of Syria and Iraq. Their ouster from Raqqa, the ISIL capital, would reflect in real time, Islamic State's fall from the power base they had acquired and defended in record time. The lock-step conquest of Raqqa with that of Mosul in Iraq, would put the final nail in the coffin of ISIL's Middle East ambitions. 

Fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in north-eastern Syria. The YPG welcomed the US decision, describing it as late but historic. Photograph: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

The Syrian Kurds just happen to have immense strategic importance to the United States in their joint efforts to dislodge and defeat Islamic State. That the U.S.-allied force is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party is an issue that drives Erdogan to a frenzy of hatred. The PKK has long fought Turkish forces in its bid to 'persuade' the Turkish state that it is high time to surrender the Kurdish homeland back to the Kurds, sacrificing a geographic proportion of Turkey's sovereign territory that has always been Kurdish.

It seems clear that the Kurd-frenzied Erdogan, a still-evolving tyrant, was a trifle hasty in welcoming the successor to the U.S. President with whom he had had a testy relationship. Erdogan had somehow envisaged Donald Trump as being more malleable, more susceptible to falling in line with Turkey's goals and views than Obama. Perhaps he had convinced himself on the basis that the two seemed to have much in common; Erdogan and Trump, both given to bellicose grandstanding, narcissism, and uncompromising entitlements.

The Gift of God to Turkey

"This is a historic decision, not an ordinary event. We are carrying out the most important reform in the history of our nation."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president, Turkey

"Yes, yes, yes! Our leader is the gift of God to us."
"We will always support him. He's governing so well."
Mualla Sengul, Erdogan supporter, Ankara

Hurriyetdailynews.com/images

"He's a real leadership figure because he is not a politician that comes from the outside. He comes from the street."
"He has 40 years of political experience and is very strong in practical terms."
"He is a harsh leader in character. But in Turkey, a country that has so many problems, in societies like ours, the image of strong leadership is necessary to command both fear and respect and trust in society."
Birol Akgun, international relations expert, Yildirim Beyazit Univeresity, Ankara

"There are no losers of this referendum."
"Turkey won, the beloved people won."
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim 

"[I normally vote for Erdogan] but I want to keep the Parliament system."
"I don't want to get on a bus with no brake system. A one-man system is like that. [I will vote] no."
Mustafa Sacat, 62, Istanbul resident

Mr. Erdogan's long-time, carefully nurtured plan to replace Turkey's parliamentary system with a presidential model, will now move forward. He had suffered a temporary setback a year and a half earlier when the Kurdish party had won a large number of seats in parliament, while his own Justice and Development Party had gained fewer seats than he had anticipated. Careful manipulation in a later vote turned that situation around, setting the stage, through the arrest of many of the Kurdish HDP parliamentarians and greater numbers of the governing party elected, to the current situation becoming reality.

The opposition CHP party plan to contest 37 percent of the ballot boxes over suspicions of vote tampering will change little. The High Electoral Board accepted ballots not given official stamps, a last-minute decision of their acceptance, defying proof of fraudulence. While opponents of Erdogan fear Turkey will now become a dictatorship with the greater concentration of power in the presidency, once a ceremonial position, with greater power resting in the position of prime minister. Now however, there will no longer be a prime minister, only a president, with unlimited powers as head of state and government head.

There will now be no turn-about in the political situation for the country up to 2029, the date to which it is assumed that Erdogan will continue to rule, after several five-year electoral wins once his current term expires. With the initial minority government achieved by Erdogan's party in 2003, he built on the momentum toward a majority government and with each succeeding election where he and his AKP party became more firmly entrenched, corruption did as well, and so did an increasingly volatile, abusive autocratic leader.

It is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that this man orchestrated the the coup that he attributed to the Gulenist movement with Kurdish involvement, to manipulate his supporters' belief the country was under siege by its enemies which included the West. Erdogan blamed the United States for collusion in the attempted coup to dislodge him and later characterized Germany and the Netherlands as Nazis when they refused to permit Turkish ministers to campaign in their countries for the referendum's passage.

The coup enabled him to increase his firm grip on power, and the fact that Turks came together as one in reaction to the violence, enabled him to have the growing confidence to put 100,000 Turks out of their jobs as judges, lawyers, teachers, journalists, military officers and police. Over 40,000 people were placed under arrest, ostensibly because they were involved in the coup, but in reality because they were opposed to the actions the president was taking to create divisions in the country and to ostracize his opponents.

An estimated 86 percent of voters turned out on Sunday from among 55-million eligible to vote. Significantly, divisions within the population are of such monumental depth that Turkey's three most populous cities, Istanbul, Ankara the capital and the western province of Izmir all voted against the referendum. Erdogan's support came largely from the less educated, more Islamist rural areas of the country. A situation that typifies the support given tyrants from among the population base.