Free Republic

Turkish security services brought their strong-arm tactics to Washington on Thursday, roughing up protesters, journalists and even D.C. police before a speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The event descended into chaos and violence outside the Brookings Institute near D.C.'s Dupont Circle after the president's security personnel confronted a small group of people gathered to protest Erdogan's visit. ... Turkish security then clashed with the D.C. cops, who refused to remove protesters from the premises.

On Sunday, November 1, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) claimed that it had won a majority of seats in parliament. Voting registration and voter turnout numbers prove beyond any doubt that Erdogan cheated. ... AKP supporters were registered at multiple sites and so, in effect, voted two or more times. Turkey's High Election Council (Yuksek Secim Kurulu, YSK) handles all complaints. Once they issue a decision, by law it cannot be litigated. They are no longer independent, however, but under the thumb of Erdogan. Numbers do not lie. Erdogan stole this election, plain and simple.

Turkish police on Sunday arrested the editor of Turkey's biggest-selling newspaper and 26 others in lightning raids on supporters of a US-based cleric who has become President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top foe.

In case you were looking for an actual “war on women” as opposed to some fictional hysteria constructed for the entertainment of daytime cable news soap operas, you might want to take a look at Turkey. The new president of our “ally” in the region near Syria, Tayyip Erdogan, decided to opine on the subject of gender relations this week and he really wasn’t worried about mincing words. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said women cannot be treated as equal to men, and has accused feminists of rejecting motherhood. “You cannot put women and men on an equal footing,”...

"In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Turkey was often seen as the model for a democracy in the Muslim world. The economic policies of the current government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic Fundamentalist party AKP have been praised widely in the West, just last week again by star-economist Jeffrey Sachs. So, where is the uprising coming from? To understand what is happening in Turkey, it makes sense to look at neighbouring Iran. In some ways, Iran could be seen as the prototype of the current regime in Turkey.".....

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...