Posted on 01/09/2019 12:43:53 PM PST by Texas Fossil
President Donald Trump’s about-face toward his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is enough to give whiplash. Just 5-months ago, Trump was criticizing Turkey and undercutting its economy to bring Erdoğan to his knees over the imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson. Behind-the-scenes, American officials/U.S. intelligence had grown exacerbated with Erdoğan for his enabling of the Islamic State as well as terrorist groups ranging from Hamas to Boko Haram . Now, of course, Erdoğan is Trump’s confidant and friend.
The irony of this about-face is the prickly Trump has absolutely no idea the disdain with which Erdoğan and the Turkish press view him. Erdoğan may be an enigma to many diplomats and analysts who do not want to believe the worst about him, but certain Turkish newspapers that are allowed to publish and have grown more prominent during Erdoğan’s reign provide a window into his mind. The reason is simple: any journalist who dares contradict what Erdoğan says or thinks is fired, imprisoned or worse. As columnist Zeynep Gurcanli observed in one of Turkey’s last secular newspapers, “The journalists who said that ‘the AKP’s Syrian policy is wrong’ have been externalized, marginalized, and fired.” In contrast, Erdoğan cheerleaders like İbrahim Karagül at Yeni Şafak , however, have only grown more prominent and, indeed, have found the doors to wealth/the highly-restricted Turkish airwaves open to them.
So what do these journalists say about the United States/Trump? While Washington may navel-gaze and assume all anti-American animus has to do with Trump,
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
He is correct in his assessment here.
Erdogan is a typical muslim strongman dragging Turkey back to the dark ages. The US and NATO need to reevaluate their alliance with Turkey with harsh and truthful eyes and not wishful thinking. Turkey, Syria and Iran are headed backwards and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are headed forward to a modern age.
Hi.
Ask Erdogan. Sultan Erdogan has a nice ring to it.
Methinks Istanbul should be renamed to Constantinople.
5.56mm
If we still have nukes there, we need them OUT NOW!
They have long been gone.
Agree
Sawthe this coming. They aren’t our or Europe’s Allie. Expelled them from NATO. They are a bigger threat than Russia or China.
... smoke pouring from ears .... does not compute ....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.