Opinions
The Government Response to Turkey’s Coup Is an Affront to Democracy
It is vital for Washington and Turkey’s other international partners now to use all their influence to press Ankara to reverse course, to safeguards the rights of those caught up in the purge, and to strengthen rather than weaken the independence of the institutions that underpin it, including the courts, media, universities and parliament itself. The people who died defending it deserve nothing less.
How to Play Nice With an Angry Erdogan
The sweeping purges and mass arrests since last month’s failed military coup in Turkey have confirmed many of the worst fears about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. They are the most recent in a long history of abuses. Over the last few years, Mr. Erdogan has harshly repressed the Turkish press and civil society, supported extremist militant groups in Syria
The Mystery of Turkey’s Failed Coup
In my research, I have been on the inside living with his followers while teaching English at one of the schools. Religion is not taught. It is not in the curriculum. The idea that these are jihadist madrases, or that Gülenists are extremists or terrorists is beyond absurd as anyone who knows them will attest.
A Personal Story from Turkey: I am a “Man of Law” Not a Terrorist!
I am a lawyer, I am man of law but according to President Erdogan I am a “terrorist” who attempted for a coup! I am writing this letter from a city in Eastern Europe as I had to run away from persecution. Just after my departure on 22 July, Turkish police arrived at my house but could not find me. Instead, with the intention to bring me out they have decided to detain my mother who is 86 years old and can barely walk.
What is going on in Turkey? Who is Fethullah Gülen?
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the president of Turkey, a NATO member nation that hosts our nuclear weapons. Evidence indicates he’s an Islamist. Erdogan’s fundamentalist convictions led to persecution of Fethullah Gülen whi has been compared to Gandhi, Luther, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr., but Erdogan accuses him of launching the recent military coup. Gülen is a scholar and man of the cloth.
Is Nigeria now a part of Turkey?
These are indeed interesting times in Nigeria. The Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. Hakan Cakil is the Prime Minister of the Turkish Nigerian republic. Yes, he is for he recently called on the Nigerian government to close 17 Turkish schools in the country. That was quite audacious, and deserving of a backhand slap by my three-year-old son.
Turkey’s Real Coup [by Erdogan] Has Begun
Erdoğan is a dictator, but he might not have achieved his ambition absent Western naïveté. He and his supporters played American and European officials like a fiddle. He sought to disempower the Turkish military but couched his ambition to do so in the rhetoric of democratic reform.
The lethal and bitter aftermath of Turkey’s failed coup
The purge hurries Turkey on its way to what was already looking increasingly inevitable as its unfortunate destination: an illiberal executive presidency with a fading democratic lustre and Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruling more or less unchecked and unrivalled until he dies or steps down.
The term ‘Fetö’ is a misnomer, a bizarre creation of the paranoid Erdoğan propaganda machine
It disturbed me to see your newspaper uncritically using the term ‘Fetö’ – standing for the so-called ‘Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation’, which is a rather bizarre creation of the paranoid Erdoğan propaganda machine. It is true that, with most dissenting voices silenced and most of the opposition press closed, Erdoğan’s propaganda now reigns supreme in Turkey.
Reuben Abati: Let’s Talk Turkey About Turkey
YeniSafak News, a pro-government Turkish newspaper: “Turkish envoy seeks closure of Gulen schools in Nigeria” (July 29). But are they really Gulen schools? Interestingly, some Nigerian newspapers reported that Turkey has “ordered” the Nigerian Government to close down some schools! Can an Ambassador or any country give orders to the Nigerian government?
Turkey’s Judicial Purge Threatens the Rule of Law
But nothing in those proposed laws came close to undercutting Turkey’s justice system like the judicial purge does. If they want to be consistent, European leaders should insist on the reinstatement of the fired judges, or at least case-by-case adjudication of their alleged wrongdoing. The U.S. should make similar demands on its NATO ally. The future of the rule of law in Turkey lies in the balance.
Why does the West love the Gülen movement so much?
One of the ways with which the Gülen movement is firmly pegged to the wider western world is its ability to connect with the western norms of liberal global governance. The movement has always been keen to adapt the western-liberal cooperative problem-solving mechanisms such as the EU norms.
The Erdoğan-Did-It Conspiracy
While on its face, the notion that elements in the Turkish military loyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan deliberately launched a “fake coup” to justify a crackdown on Erdoğan’s enemies sounds farfetched, the belief is taking hold not only among Turkey’s staunch secularist minority and followers of Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, but also among those who know the Turkish military well.
Turkey’s Gulen Demand – The U.S. shouldn’t extradite the exiled Turk without better evidence
Turkey is demanding that the U.S. extradite Fethullah Gulen whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating this month’s failed military coup. “The evidence is crystal clear,” PM Yildirim told the Journal Tuesday, adding that Washington’s request for evidence of Mr. Gulen’s guilt is superfluous “when 265 people have been killed.” If that’s Mr. Yildirim’s standard of proof, Washington should deny the request.
