Posted on 04/24/2016 6:59:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Here’s a less than sunny story to start off your Sunday, but since it involves churches I suppose it’s appropriate. We only recently discussed the rather difficult position Barack Obama finds himself in when dealing with the provocative nature of our supposed ally Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. His track record as a positive force for change has been questionable at best, and this week he adds another negative mark to his tally. In the war torn city of Diyarbakir, the state has seized control of all the non-Muslim churches, including some iconic properties which date back more than a dozen centuries. (Nick Gutteridge)
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken control of six churches in the war-torn southeastern city of Diyarbakir in his latest move to squash freedom of speech and religious movement.
The state-sanctioned seizure is just the latest in a number of worrying developments to come out of increasingly hardline Turkey, which is in advanced talks with the EU over visa-free travel for its 80 million citizens.
Included in the seizures are Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches, one of which is over 1,700 years old.
They have now effectively become state property – meaning they are run by the government – in a country with a dire human rights record where about 98 percent of the population is Muslim.
Diyarbakir is situated on the Tigris River and is locally referred to as the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan, so it’s been a focal point of the fighting between the Kurds and the Turkish government. Erdogan’s administration is claiming that the seizure of the properties is part of a “restoration and historical preservation” effort which sounds good on paper but is more than questionable under the circumstances. There doesn’t seem to be any corresponding takeover of the Mosques in the area, though the government technically owns those already. (Turkey is a Muslim nation to begin with.)
This seems to be part of a pattern for Erdogan. Earlier this year the government took control of the newspaper Zaman which had formerly been critical of some of the administration’s policies, but now (unexpectedly) seems to take an editorial stance which is quite favorable to the government. (The Guardian)
The Turkish daily Zaman, the country’s biggest newspaper, has published its first printed edition under new management, two days after the government seized the paper and removed its editor-in-chief.
Formerly an opposition newspaper critical of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Justice and Development party (AKP), Sunday’s edition firmly toed the government line.
“In less than 48 hours, the new admin turned seized Zaman into a propaganda piece of the regime in Turkey,” Sevgi Akarcesme, the editor-in chief of Today’s Zaman, an English-language sister publication, tweeted.
So this is the quality of allies we are apparently stuck with in one of the most troubled parts of the world. Shutting down the freedom of the press, taking over religious institutions which are not approved by the government and locking up journalists and political opponents aren’t exactly the hallmarks of a western leaning nation. The country is essentially under a Muslim dictatorship at this point, but they occupy such a critical position in both the war against ISIS and the EU refugee crisis that everyone is largely willing to look the other way.
Although he’s been rather silent on the subject lately, President Obama previously endorsed the idea of Turkey being admitted to the European Union. The Turks are still pushing hard for admission, but that very possibility is one of the factors which Britain cites as they consider leaving the union themselves. Given his comments during his recent trip across the pond, it seems as if Barack Obama is coming down on the wrong side of the ideological battle here. Pushing the Brits to remain in the union even while urging the admission of Turkey is counterproductive at best. We need to be considering just how badly we need Turkey as an ally given their record under Erdogan’s leadership and how much of a price we’re willing to pay for their continued good will.
Erdogan is prez. Hussein Obama’s closest international friend. Erdogan thinks he can pretty much do anything because he believes we’ll support them in war.
If it’s against Russia, I say let the Russians have their way with them. Turkey has been doing nothing but causing problems in the region.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey think we’re supposed to fight their wars. I wouldn’t let any American die for either.
Not only should Islamist Turkey NOT be admitted to the EU, it should be EXPELLED from NATO. Once Turkey is no longer a cancerous member of NATO, it will no longer feel safe to continue its de facto alliance with ISIS and its unofficial war on the KURDS.
The New Caliphate Rolls On.
Just waiting for January when their Caliph Barack Obama will assume his new throne.
The surrender of the EU with the Migrant Deal has enabled Erdogan to go wild
Could be efforts to provoke Russia into a possible war.
Are our raw military and national security interests better served by Moscow or Ankara, Constantinople or Istanbul?
This guy is pouring himself into the vacuum pumped into the region by Mr. Zero. And he is the single person responsible for the anti-crusade migratory flood into Europe.
But, hey, he doesn't wear those pestiferous pajamas, he wears a well-tailored western suit, so "What Me Worry?"
How they did it in Sweden.
Already posted. There are eight churches, three are in ruins, a fourth had been in ruins but was recently restored:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3424138/posts?page=6#6
Not one American should shed blood for these people... not one. Ever.
Time to get out of NATO.
The Pope comments: “........................................”
Erdogan is an islamist. Turkey is becoming another anti civilization state.
I will firmly be on the side of the Russians in that war.
Cough, cough.
Why the lavender eye shadow does a lot for his eyes.
I was stationed at Incirlik and lived off the base for a while and got to know Turks very well. I can say without hesitation that they are the most vile excuses for humans that probably ever existed. They will steal you blind and smile at you while they do it. They stink and I would rather sleep with a pack of wet dogs than be around them. Only someone as ignorant as Obama would trust them. I was career military and been all around the world and except for the French I have nothing bad to say about any other people, and even he French are better than Turks.
When it comes to the 28 member countries in NATO, the interests of one are being served at the expense of the others; that one nation is Turkey. By furthering Turkey’s agenda, NATO is endangering the national security of the remaining 27, though many of them seem willing to go right along with it. Turkey, meanwhile, continues to reap membership awards. U.S. foreign policy – under the Barack Obama administration – has been in solidarity with Turkey at every turn. This explains why NATO has as well...........Barack Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The U.S. Helps Reconstruct the Ottoman Empire
◾Each of these United States military interventions occurred in an area that had been part of the Ottoman Empire, and where a secular regime was replaced by an Islamist one. So far, the German policy of keeping hidden its leadership role in its attempt to reconstitute the Ottoman Empire has succeeded.Since the mid-1990s the United States has intervened militarily in several internal armed conflicts in Europe and the Middle East: bombing Serbs and Serbia in support of Izetbegovic's Moslem Regime in Bosnia in 1995, bombing Serbs and Serbia in support of KLA Moslems of Kosovo in 1999, bombing Libya's Gaddafi regime in support of rebels in 2010. Each intervention was justified to Americans as motivated by humanitarian concerns: to protect Bosnian Moslems from genocidal Serbs, to protect Kosovo Moslems from genocidal Serbs, and to protect Libyans from their murderous dictator Muammar Gaddafi.........
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