Here’s how we can make Turkey’s president pay a price for his crackdown on journalists

The Washington Post ^ | April 5 at 10:41 AM | Michael Rubin

[Texas Fossil]

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s ruler for 15 years, has established himself as Turkey’s most consequential leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the republic’s founder. But while Ataturk’s legacy was to orient Turkey toward the West and lay a foundation upon which successors could cultivate democracy, religious tolerance and a reasonably free press, Erdogan seeks the opposite: He has placed Turkey firmly in the Islamic bloc and increasingly prefers Russia over NATO. He fans the flames of religious incitement not only against Jews and Christians, but also against Muslims who reject his more conservative views.

It is time for the United States and its allies to show Erdogan that his crackdown, at home and abroad, comes at a cost. The West can start by using some of the same mechanisms it has applied to bad behavior from Russia — in particular, the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on individuals who could be shown to have committed serious violations of human rights.

We would be well-advised to start by looking at the president’s treatment of the press. Eviscerating free speech and press freedom have been central to Erdogan’s strategy. If the opposition has no platform, then Erdogan need not win arguments — he can simply impose them and eschew accountability for his policies. The warning signs were there from the start: In 2005, after Musa Kart, an editorial cartoonist for Cumhuriyet, lampooned Erdogan as a cat entangled in yarn, Erdogan successfully sued Kart for $3,500. When Kart again lampooned the president, he ended up in prison.

[Caipirabob]

Oh - Hey, I’m sorry - Totally wrong thread! I thought I was commenting on the “ethics issues” for the left on the EPA head Scott Pruitt.