OBAMA EMBRACES TURKISH TYRANNY
Jonathan S. Tobin
02.06.2012 – 5:45 PM
President Obama may have bragged to Fareed Zakaria in TIME last month
about his close relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
but a better understanding of the sort of leader that the president
values via an op-ed in today’s Washington Post. Turkish opposition
leader Kemal Kılıcdaroglu outlined the vast scale of human rights
abuses and suppression of dissent that has become routine under Erdogan
with hundreds of journalists, politicians military officers and other
dissenters languishing in prison for years without being charged.
While some in Washington excitedly talk of Turkey’s ruling Islamic
party being the preferred model for the Muslim world, the reality is
that Ankara’s path is one that is headed steadily away from democracy
and toward more hostility toward the West and the United States.
As Kılıcdaroglu makes clear, tyranny is the only word to describe
Turkey under Erdogan and his AKP:
The AKP is systematic and ruthless in its persecution of any opposition
to its policies. Authoritarian pressure methods such as heavy tax
fines and illegal videotaping and phone tapping are widely used to
silence opponents. …
It all boils down to this: In today’s Turkey, when one criticizes the
justice system, one is prosecuted. When one appeals to the courts,
one is penalized.
Given the fact that the Obama administration is probably less
interested in human rights concerns abroad than any American government
in generations, it is no surprise that none of this seems to alarm
the White House. But it should also put Obama on the spot since he
has not only failed to press the Turks on their anti-Israel policy
but has become Ankara’s leading cheerleader on the international scene.
The administration has taken a sanguine attitude about the rise of
the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt while speaking of the Turks as the
example they wish the Islamists there to follow. But as troubling
as this apathy about the dangers of Islamist rule may be to the
regional balance of power with Israel, it is now becoming apparent
that the human cost of this decision will also be considerable. The
only difference is that it has taken almost a decade for Erdogan to
gain the leverage to suppress his foes. It won’t take that long for
the Brotherhood.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
