After Turkey's Coup Comes Erdogan's Purge - by Uri Friedman

Recep Tayyip Erdogan could soon become the most powerful Turkish leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey, and arguably the most powerful leader “since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire” in 1923, Soner Cagaptay told me.

Cagaptay told me this on Sunday, just two days after roaring fighter jets, rolling tanks, and rebel helicopters had descended on Ankara, Istanbul, and the Turkish Riviera in an attempt to overthrow the Turkish president—two days after the insurrectionists had forced a television newscaster to read their manifesto on air, while Erdogan was reduced to FaceTiming with a TV anchor from an undisclosed location, flickering in and out of view as the anchor received incoming calls.

How, between Friday and Sunday, had the itty-bitty man on the iPhone screen morphed into the second coming of Ataturk? Why did FaceTime triumph over tanks? And what does that tell us about the nature of Erdogan’s power, and how he might wield it after squashing last weekend’s coup?

 

Redad more: After Turkey's Coup Comes Erdogan's Purge - The Atlantic

SpiegelOnLine: No Red Carpet for Dutch Populist: Turkey Frets About Geert Wilders' Planned Visit - by Bram Vermeulen

For the complete report from the SPIEGEL ONLINE click on this link

The Turkish government fears a scheduled visit by Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, saying it could dent Turkish relations with the Netherlands and Europe. The Turkish government says it fears a scheduled visit by Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, saying it could dent Turkish relations with the Netherlands and Europe. But many secular and religious Turks say they would welcome a debate with the polemic politician.

"Normally, the army belongs in the barracks. But I will make an exception for Turkey." Wilders wrote. "The Turkish army is the greatest defender of Kemal Ataturk's legacy, the man who compared Islam with a rotting corpse. Without the corrective influence of the army, Turkey would already be a second Iran." This position is incomprehensible and indefensible, said Mustafa Akyol, a columnist and deputy editor of the Turkish Daily News and a practicing Muslim. "Wilders forgets that Ataturk in his time (the 1920 and 30s) turned Turkey's face to the West, but that the West wasn't a very pleasant place at the time. Many of the European fascist and nationalist ideologies of the time, like that of authoritarian one-party states, were thus imported to Turkey and the secular Turks have held onto them until now.''

Note EU-Digest: Mr. Wilders, a one dimensional politician, who usually is completely off the track when it comes to conventional political activities and historical research, certainly read up well about Turkish history and Ataturk's legendary vision about Islam and the dangers of Islam or any religion as a State imposed religion.