As
predicted,
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had absolutely no intention of abiding
by the results of the June 7, 2015 when, for the first time in more than
12 years, his Justice and Development lost its majority in parliament.
Joining a coalition means compromising with opposition parties rather
than continuing his own tyranny of the plurality.
Hence, Erdoğan has called
snap-elections
for November 1. Erdoğan is no gambler, however, and he will not trust
his fate to the voters determining their party pick on an even playing
field.
While Turkish diplomats and perhaps their American counterparts as
well seek to spin recent military operations as renewed Turkish
seriousness in the fight against the Islamic State, they are anything
but.
Turkey’s military disproportionately targeted the Kurds who have
been fighting the Islamic State, and they have launched repeated
airstrikes as well at the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) presence in
northern Iraq, never mind the ceasefire to which Erdoğan had earlier
agreed. Indeed, it’s all well and good to suggest that Turkey is
fighting a renewed insurgency but the renewed outbreak of insurgency was
largely Erdoğan’s political decision.
In reality, it would be just as
accurate to say that Erdoğan’s regime has killed dozens if not hundreds
of Turkish citizens since his party’s relatively poor showing in the
June elections. Simply put, Erdoğan believes a crisis works in his favor
and undercuts the electoral hopes of Turkey’s Kurds.
But fomenting crisis is only one mechanism by which Erdoğan will seek
to cement his power. He has also taken censorship inside Turkey to new
heights to prevent his opponents from pushing out their message online.
“Radical Democrat” blogger Gürkan Özturan
gives a chilling new report on Erdoğan crackdown on Internet news sites:
As
predicted,
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had absolutely no intention of abiding
by the results of the June 7, 2015 when, for the first time in more than
12 years, his Justice and Development lost its majority in parliament.
Joining a coalition means compromising with opposition parties rather
than continuing his own tyranny of the plurality.
Hence, Erdoğan has called
snap-elections
for November 1. Erdoğan is no gambler, however, and he will not trust
his fate to the voters determining their party pick on an even playing
field.
While Turkish diplomats and perhaps their American counterparts as
well seek to spin recent military operations as renewed Turkish
seriousness in the fight against the Islamic State, they are anything
but.
Turkey’s military disproportionately targeted the Kurds who have
been fighting the Islamic State, and they have launched repeated
airstrikes as well at the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) presence in
northern Iraq, never mind the ceasefire to which Erdoğan had earlier
agreed. Indeed, it’s all well and good to suggest that Turkey is
fighting a renewed insurgency but the renewed outbreak of insurgency was
largely Erdoğan’s political decision. In reality, it would be just as
accurate to say that Erdoğan’s regime has killed dozens if not hundreds
of Turkish citizens since his party’s relatively poor showing in the
June elections.
Simply put, Erdoğan believes a crisis works in his favor
and undercuts the electoral hopes of Turkey’s Kurds.
But fomenting crisis is only one mechanism by which Erdoğan will seek
to cement his power.
He has also taken censorship inside Turkey to new
heights to prevent his opponents from pushing out their message online.
“Radical Democrat” blogger Gürkan Özturan
gives a chilling new report on Erdoğan crackdown on Internet news sites:
Read more: Erdogan Uses Censorship to Cling to Power
