International Turkey's Lonely Road to Isolation: The World Looks on as Erdogan Jockeys for a Third Decade in Power

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Turkey Election: Erdogan Wins Landmark Victory
Sweeping Victory Extends Prime Minister's 12-Year Grip on Power in New Position
Aug. 11, 2014

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ISTANBUL- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept to a landslide victory in Turkey's first direct presidential election, extending his 12-year grip on power and securing a mandate to fulfill his pledge of creating a "new Turkey."

The country's election board announced Mr. Erdogan had won according to preliminary results, obtaining enough votes to avoid a runoff. With 99% of the ballots counted, the premier had secured 52%, far ahead of his nearest opponent Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a diplomat with a low profile in domestic politics who garnered 38% of the vote, according to state-run Anadolu news agency.

In a victory speech to thousands of flag-waving supporters at his governing Justice and Development Party's Ankara headquarters, Mr. Erdogan called for societal reconciliation after a brutal campaign that was widely seen as hardening divisions across the country. But he also warned his political enemies against undermining Turkish security.

"Without a doubt, new Turkey, great Turkey, leading Turkey has won today. We are closing the doors on one era, and we are now taking our first step to a new phase," Mr. Erdogan said. "We will face down whoever threatens our national security."

Sunday's result—Mr. Erdogan's ninth consecutive election victory including referendums and municipal polls—cements his position as Turkey's most powerful ruler since the Republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was president in the 1930s. Raised in Istanbul's impoverished dockside district of Kasimpasa, Mr. Erdogan will now move into Ataturk's Cankaya palace on a hilltop overlooking central Ankara.

Mr. Erdogan's pledge to beef up the largely ceremonial presidency could reconfigure political power in Turkey—a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member and key Washington ally in a region beset by conflict. The premier's supporters argue that the shift to direct elections will justify a more active role for the country's head of state with an electoral mandate. Until recently Turkey's parliament elected the president.

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party warned Sunday that Mr. Erdogan's victory would herald the creation of a more authoritarian system centered around his personal appeal.

"The risk is that the whole system of checks-and-balance will be further weakened as he tries to experiment with this executive presidency, running state affairs from the palace and bringing everything to uncertain territory," said Wolfango Piccoli, managing director at Teneo Intelligence, a New York-based political risk consultancy.

Underpinning Mr. Erdogan's electoral success was his strong support among conservative Muslims, many of whom joined the ranks of a burgeoning middle class as nominal annual incomes tripled to $10,000 per capita under his reign. The premier also elevated the social status of many of his more pious constituents, who felt treated as second-class citizens in a constitutionally secular society. His government has raised the status of religious high schools and allowed head scarves for women in state universities and in most public offices.

Mr. Erdogan's victory was widely expected after he dominated the election season and spent on his campaign five times what his rivals did combined.

Despite his popularity, the Turkey that Mr. Erdogan will govern as president is starkly polarized. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center portrayed Turkey as a divided society, with 48% approving of Mr. Erdogan and 48% disapproving. Many in Turkey's secular opposition feel excluded from politics, a trend evidenced by the turnout of around 75%—the lowest participation in a national election since 1977 and far below the 90% levels for local elections in March, which were seen as a more competitive vote.

"I didn't vote. There really wasn't any candidate that I would travel back for," said Elif Fida, a 20-year-old student in the coastal town of Edremit, one of the many Turks on summer vacation who opted not to go home to vote.

With Mr. Erdogan safely sweeping the presidency, attention will now turn to his choice of prime minister, which analysts say is likely to be a malleable loyalist to maintain control over his Islamist-rooted political party, known as AKP after its Turkish initials. Previous prime ministers who left parliament for the presidency, such as Suleyman Demirel and Turgut Ozal, overestimated the loyalty and unity of their parties and failed to retain control.

Mr. Erdogan has said he would continue as prime minister until he is sworn into the presidency on Aug. 28, arguing that leaving his post to a caretaker would trigger national distress. But the premier will move swiftly to lay out future steps for his governing AKP, commencing the party's 50-member executive and decision-making committee Monday morning.

The government has done little to quell months of speculation and uncertainty over the future make up of cabinet. Outgoing President Abdullah Gul, an old ally of the premier and co-founder of the AKP, who helped clinch membership talks with the European Union, ruled out a swap with Mr. Erdogan. During his victory speech, the premier didn't include Mr. Gul in a long list of thank yous.

"As president, my recommendation is for Turkey to return to its real agenda…strengthening itself on the road to democracy and law," Mr. Gul said while casting his vote Sunday.

Mr. Erdogan's victory caps a dramatic reversal in fortunes from six months ago, when he was besieged by street protests, a sinking economy and a sprawling corruption scandal that snared dozens of his top allies. The premier survived those challenges by cracking down on antigovernment protests and overhauling judicial institutions to head off the corruption investigation, which he claimed were an attempt to overthrow his government.

But domestic political victories have also drawn concern in some Western capitals that Mr. Erdogan has lurched toward a more autocratic system of governance, evoking comparisons to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has also occupied the posts of head of state and prime minister. Some analysts have suggested Mr. Erdogan's populism, polarizing rhetoric and omnipresence on television is more akin to former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.

Turkish voters on Sunday declared their faith in Mr. Erdogan's vision for a new Turkey.

"He met my expectations to this day, his vision and stance are very close to mine, and I'm very happy with all the services," said Aysenur Celik, a 26-year-old clothes designer after casting her vote in the conservative Istanbul district of Fatih. "I'll keep voting for Erdogan and his party as long as they maintain this."
 
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Yes. I am glad Barry went all in instead of falling for Erdogans plan of dragging us to direct confrontation with Assad which is almost certainly what would have happened with a "safe zones" inside Syria.
 
I'm glad the US decided to grow some balls and disregard their "allies" and do what is right. The airdrop decision by the US was a glorious bitchslap to Turkey and Erdogan. It put Erdogan in his place and it was basically the US saying "bitch fuck your shit, I'm in charge here".

What has the PYD done to be a terrorist group? It's politically and militarily separate from the PKK. They've done nothing to Turkey and are only defending their people and areas in Syria. Yet Erdogan tirelessly tries to shove the "PYD and Isis are the same, they are both terrorists" into everyone's throat. But each day people are realizing the fact that this is nothing but major bullshit perpetuated by Erdogan to weaken the Kurds.
 
Zankou really called it when he opined that Turkey should have been kicked out of NATO several weeks ago. I nodded my head, then, thinking, "Yeah, he's right."

My nodding has only grown more vigorous the past fortnight.


*Edit* Zank or another mod might merge this into the main ISIS thread. I haven't kept up with that mega-thread well enough to know whether that is appropriate, so for now, I'll leave this here.
 
I think the Kurds are sending a very Curt message to Isis, that they won't be in a state of Nirvana if they try and invade Kobane. In fact, Isis may just say Nevermind.
 
*Edit* Zank or another mod might merge this into the main ISIS thread. I haven't kept up with that mega-thread well enough to know whether that is appropriate, so for now, I'll leave this here.

This thread will focus on Turkey's position on the world stage in the days to come, instead of ISIS atrocities.
 
Turkey throwing a spanner in NATO works
Oct 17, 2014

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 69th session of the
United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, at U.N. headquarters.

For a country that is supposed to be a pivotal Nato ally, Turkey sure has a strange way of showing loyalty to its friends in their hour of need. Ankara's support in the battle to defeat the fanatics of Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), who are busily establishing their fiefdom across the border in Syria and Iraq, is vital if the West is to stand any chance of success. And yet, rather than helping its western allies, the Turks seem to be doing everything in their power to frustrate the international effort to eradicate the Daesh threat, a campaign that politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have warned could last for many years to come.

Perhaps the most graphic illustration of Turkey's ambivalent approach has been the image of tanks from Nato's second largest army sitting idly by as militants raised Daesh's black flag over the Syrian town of Kobani, just a few hundred metres away across the Turkish border. With Kobani's Kurdish defenders facing a desperate battle for survival, even modest support from the Turks would have helped them stem Daesh's relentless advancing tide. But rather than lend a helping hand, the Turks refused to ease border restrictions to allow vital supplies and reinforcements into Kobani.

The same obstructive attitude can be seen in Ankara's less-than-enthusiastic response to Washington's repeated requests for permission to mount air strikes against Daesh positions from Turkish bases. As a result, US fighters are inconveniently operating from aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, which severely impedes their ability to respond quickly to the constantly changing battle landscape. The Turks' reluctance to get behind the military effort against Daesh is based on two concerns, both of which put Ankara fundamentally at odds with the objectives of its Nato partners. The first is Turkey' aim in Syria's brutal civil war to see Syrian President Bashar Al Assad overthrown and replaced by an Islamic government with a similar outlook to that of its own president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Until last year, this was not a problem, as Britain and America and Ankara shared a common goal regarding Al Assad. But the West's priorities have changed dramatically since the heady days of late August 2013 when US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron made their ill-fated attempt to garner support for air strikes against Damascus.

These days, the priority is to defeat Daesh militants who oppose the Al Assad regime. Claims that the Turks are actively supporting Daesh fighters with arms and training indicate that there now exists a sharp divergence between Turkey's priorities in the conflict and those of the western powers. The plight of the Kurds is the other bone of contention between Turkey and Nato. Denying Kurdish aspirations for full independence is hard-wired into the DNA of Ankara's political establishment, to the extent that the Turks, as shown in Kobani, would prefer to see a town overrun by Daesh rather than have the Kurds prevail. Nor is this the first time that Ankara's selfish pursuit of its own agenda placed it at odds with the rest of Nato.

The initial planning for the US-led coalition's ground invasion of Iraq in 2003 was predicated on the assumption that the main thrust of the attack could be launched from Kurdish-controlled territory in the north, within easy striking distance of Saddam Hussain's stronghold in Baghdad. But at the last minute, the Turks, fearing that Kurdish involvement in the campaign might strengthen their independence claims, pulled out, forcing the attack to be mounted from southern Iraq. Turkey's disinclination to back its Nato allies may be easier to stomach were it not for the fact that, when the boot is on the other foot, the Turks are not reticent about asking Nato for help. Nato Patriot anti-missile batteries were deployed to Turkey after one of their reconnaissance jets was shot down over Syria in the summer of 2012 and they were also provided with improved anti-aircraft defence measures during the build-up to both Gulf Wars in 1991 and 2003.

Perhaps someone should remind the Turks that membership of an alliance such as Nato is a two-way street: It is all very well expecting Nato's help when the chips are down, but a little reciprocity would not go amiss, especially when it comes to a complex issue such as Daesh. For as long as Ankara continues to ignore the appeals by Britain and its allies for support, the West has good reason to question whether Turkey's membership of Nato is worth maintaining. In the past, its membership of the alliance, which dates back to the early stages of the Cold War, in 1952, was regarded as a vital bulwark against further Soviet expansion.

In the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's activities along the Black Sea littoral in Crimea earlier this year, there remain compelling arguments for keeping the Turks on board. But the value of any alliance can only be measured by the willingness of its members to act for the common good. The Turks' recent conduct certainly raises the question: Who needs enemies when your friends behave like this?

 
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As Allies Go, Turkey is a Turkey
Oct 27, 2014

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Why any Western nation continues to allow Turkey to remain in NATO is anyone's guess, considering how they have been, and still remain, as lousy an "ally" as any in our war with al-Qaida, ISIS and the other crazies who continue to sink to new barbaric lows in the name of Islam. However, one can only wonder when Turkish prime minister Erdogan and the rest of Turkey will have their own "ISIS moment".

That moment happened in Saudi Arabia when our other "ally of convenience," the Saudi Royal Family, were so used to allowing al-Qaida to build within its country (so long as they were killing non-Saudis) that when al-Qaida started domestic terrorism that began to consume Saudi Arabia they had no choice but to join with the non-Islamic West to fight the Islamofascism (terror in the name of Islam) and preserve civilization altogether.

That was a sad and avoidable "al-Qaida moment" when Saudi Arabia had to choose to be civilized, but could have prevented that moment years earlier.

Similarly, Pakistan has had a few "Taliban moments," when its willingness to appease and "work with" the Taliban against its rivals in Afghanistan and the West were and are proven fruitless, and only resulting in more domestic terrorism on Pakistani soil.

And--again--one can only wonder when the Turks will have their own "ISIS moment". They were unhelpful during Operation Desert Storm when Saddam Hussein was taken out, and they still won't allow their bases to be used for the battle against ISIS.

While the rest of the world is having to "man up" and consider having to go back to that strife-ridden world, Turkey has been a curmudgeon and virtually AWOL. Only the Kurds--and NOT the Turks--have been a reliable, honorable and trustworthy ally in that part of the world against ISIS.

It's therefore heartrending, and with the resulting loss of any understanding or sympathy towards the Turks in its longstanding conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurds, for NATO and the West to witness its refusal to let Syrian Kurds flee the nightmare of Kobane just across the border from Turkey, and to let the overwhelmed Kurds be forced into fighting ISIS on the ground without Turkish support.

It therefore begs the question of why--if Iraq and Syria and Turkey are so unhelpful and unreliable as allies--the U.S. and NATO haven't yet called for the U.N. to recognize a nation of Kurdistan and fill it with the NATO military bases and necessary infrastructure to assist our one new, true and blue ally in that region.

As for Turkey, it is on its way to own "ISIS moment" as greater sympathy towards ISIS grows within Turkish universities and other hotbeds of discontent. The disaffected always get drawn to the crazy-dangerous movement of the times, and ISIS appears to be that movement du jour.

Turkey will have to choose, just as Egypt did after it had its own "Muslim Brotherhood moment" with the election of former President Morsi, who was thrown out by the people as he led them down the same dangerous path that other Islamic countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq have had to confront.

Egypt is now a more needed and loyal ally than ever after Morsi was thrown out, and new President al-Sisi elected as someone who can keep the peace, grow the economy, and provide a bulwark against Hamas to the east and the new Libyan caliphate to the west.

Turkey have to see a change in power to follow Egypt's example and get closer to the West, or will Turkey first choose to get closer with Iran? That latter nation portends to be an ally against ISIS while duping the West with nuclear talks, and while ramping up its own human rights violations and executions against protestors, including minors.

And with the revelation that American troops DID find chemical Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD's) in Iraq, but that they weren't new but old and in rusted, corroded condition, the situation becomes even more complicated.

Turkey is decrying the lack of American and Western will to take out Syrian President Assad, who certainly has had, and has recently used, chemical WMD's, but with the other revelation that ISIS probably has captured some of these old, Saddam Hussein-era weapons in Iraq the question of where any of these weapons will be used must be raised.

 
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Turkey is becominf or even already may be an Islamic State ( not as in the actual IS, but a state in which political Islam and the support of it becomes central). This is inconsistent with Nato and Nato receives no benefit from Turkey as a member, only liability.

What kind of a fucking ally doesnt let us use their air bases vs a terrorist state? There are hundreds of IS in Turkish hospitals or traveling through Turkey.

Its a joke and Turkey should be expelled. They dont contribute at all
 
Bump. Haven't followed what's been going on in Turkey since I last posted in here.
 
Turkey and Europe: Problems with neighbours
Nov 1st 2014

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Flags that can drift apart

THE fallout from Turkey's relations with Islamic State (IS) knows no end. Its global image is in tatters amid persistent claims of secret dealings with the jihadists, which Turkey denies. Shaky peace talks with the Turkish Kurds are near collapse, because Syrian Kurds in Kobane are still under siege by IS as Turkish tanks look on passively (see article). Friendship with America has soured because of Turkey's refusal to let coalition war planes use the Incirlik airbase to bomb IS. Now a spat with Denmark over a Danish jihadist is testing relations with the European Union.

Basil Hassan, a Dane of Lebanese extraction, is accused of attempting to murder Lars Hedegaard, a writer with anti-Islamic views, in Copenhagen. He was caught on April 16th by Turkish police at Istanbul's Ataturk airport after a tip-off. The row erupted when it emerged that Mr Hassan had been freed by the Turks despite Danish demands for his extradition.

Some speculate that Mr Hassan was part of a hostage swap for the 46 Turks kidnapped by IS from the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul in June and released on September 20th. Others claim that Mr Hassan vanished before the deal. Turkey's justice ministry refuses to comment. It is not clear if three IS fighters arrested over the murders of a policeman, a soldier and a member of the public in southern Turkey in March remain in custody.

Denmark's prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, insists Turkey must face repercussions for its behaviour, though "taking the issue to the EU now would be out of place". But a Social Democratic rival, Mette Gjerskov, says EU membership talks must be frozen and Danish troops in Turkey on a NATO mission be pulled out. The EU has also condemned the recent intrusion of Turkish ships into Cyprus's territorial waters. "I see a genuine concern across the political spectrum as to where Turkey stands," warns Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

Turkey's hopes of joining the EU were already dented after the government's response to last year's Gezi park protests left at least nine dead. Worries over efforts to quash corruption probes against the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his inner circle, to muzzle the press, to censor the internet and to stack the judiciary were all aired in the EU's recent annual progress report on Turkey's accession talks. Yet the government is proposing new laws granting the police sweeping powers, including the right to detain suspects for 24 hours without seeking prosecutors' consent.

David Cohen, an American treasury official, dropped another bombshell by announcing that IS earns as much as $1m a day from illicit oil sales involving “Turkish middlemen”. Turkish officials retort that Turkey sees IS as a threat to its own security and that since the start of this year, 60m litres of contraband fuel have been seized and 65 kilometres (40 miles) of illegal pipelines ripped out. Yet until Turkey "unequivocally joins the coalition against IS," warns Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Ankara, doubts over its place in Europe and the West "will only grow."

 
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I think the Kurds are sending a very Curt message to Isis, that they won't be in a state of Nirvana if they try and invade Kobane. In fact, Isis may just say Nevermind.

Yeah and the ISIS folk will burn in a lake of fire. But now I think Erdogan won't be saying anything but all apologies.
 
Turkey is becominf or even already may be an Islamic State ( not as in the actual IS, but a state in which political Islam and the support of it becomes central). This is inconsistent with Nato and Nato receives no benefit from Turkey as a member, only liability.

What kind of a fucking ally doesnt let us use their air bases vs a terrorist state? There are hundreds of IS in Turkish hospitals or traveling through Turkey.

Its a joke and Turkey should be expelled. They dont contribute at all

The Turkish republic has its own interests to look after, not necessarily jiving with Western interests at all times. Turkish airbases have been instrumental in almost every American intervention in ME, Central Asia in the last 20 years.

NATO doesn't care if Turkey is torn in two. They would probably love having a strong Kurdish state right in the middle of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey.

Turkey can either arm and strengthen their enemy(Kurds) and fight ISIS or they can let the Kurds and ISIS fight each other and remain as they are -- always on the verge of civil war with the Kurds.
 
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U.S. sailors attacked in Turkey
November 13, 2014




Three U.S. Navy sailors were assaulted and had bags placed over their heads during a stop in Istanbul, Turkey, according to U.S. military officials.

The incident, captured on video, happened Wednesday when sailors from the USS Ross were attacked by members of the Turkish Youth Union, according to local Turkish press accounts.

A statement posted on the Turkish Youth Union website said the bags were placed on the sailors' heads to protest American "imperialism" in the Middle East and other areas.

"Long live oppressed nation's war against imperialism," the statement said.

Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman with U.S. European Command, told CNN that "U.S. Navy officials are working with the embassy and (Navy investigators) to investigate the incident. The three sailors were unharmed and are safely back aboard. They did not require medical attention."

The assailants appeared to be Turkish neo-nationalists shouting slogans including, "Yankee Go Home," according to local press accounts. They did not appear to be tied to ISIS, which is based in neighboring Syria. Instead, they carried Turkish flags and a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Westernizing, secular founder of the Turkish republic.

"The incident does not reflect the hospitality nor the welcome reception our ships receive in port in Turkey," Hicks went on to say, and added that leave for sailors from the ship was canceled for the remainder of the day.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the attack, "which is in no way tolerable."

The United States Embassy in Ankara also condemned the attack through its official Twitter feed.

"We condemn today's attack in Istanbul, and have no doubt the vast majority of Turks would join us in rejecting an action that so disrespects Turkey's reputation for hospitality," the tweet said.

It is not the first time the Turkish Youth Union has harassed allied NATO soldiers visiting Turkey.

Last year, members of the same, hard-line secularist group physically confronted German soldiers. They were deployed along with a Patriot missile battery that had been requested by the Turkish government to protect border cities from the threat of aerial attacks from neighboring Syria. During that incident, the militants also reportedly tried to stuff sacks over their heads.

The bags over the head is a reference to when U.S. forces in northern Iraq detained Turkish special forces soldiers in 2003, who were allegedly smuggling weapons to a Turkish-backed group in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The American forces put bags over the heads of the Turkish troops during the detention, before eventually releasing them back to their NATO ally. The move incensed Turkish society. The incident was portrayed in a a popular Turkish film.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/12/politics/turkey-navy-sailors-bags-over-heards/


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Turkey frees 12 radicals after 'ugly' attack on US sailors
Stuart Williams
November 13, 2014
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Several hundreds members of the Youth Union of Turkey (TGB), a group marked by vehement anti-Americanism, on October 11, 2014 in Ankara


Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey on Thursday freed without questioning or charges 12 radical nationalist protesters who attacked three US sailors in the centre of Istanbul in an assault that alarmed the American military.

Several dozen members of Turkiye Genclik Birligi (Turkish Youth Union/TGB) attacked the visiting US sailors on Wednesday afternoon while their vessel the USS Ross was moored in the centre of Istanbul on its way back from exercises in the Black Sea.

They threw red dye and sought to force white sacks as hoods on the sailors in the Eminonu district on the Istanbul waterfront, a popular tourist hub.

The case of the 12 protesters arrested over the action was referred earlier Thursday to the court of justice in Istanbul, the Dogan news agency said.

However they were all later released without charge and without even being questioned by prosecutors, it added.

TGB chairman Cagdas Cengiz said outside the courthouse that it was "our duty as Turkish youths" to attack the soldiers.

"This protest was a salute to all the oppressed nations. From now on, American soldiers will never have an easy time here. They will not be able to go around freely," he said, quoted by the Milliyet daily.

An MP for the mainstream secular opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) also praised the action.

"These young people have done what was necessary. Turks are hospitable but have always sided with the oppressed," said Suheyl Batum.

- 'Ugly and disturbing' -

But the attack -- which came amid tensions between NATO allies the United States and Turkey over the crisis in Syria -- caused alarm in Washington.

"We find it ugly and disturbing," US military spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters in Washington, describing the attackers as "what appear to be thugs on the street."

The USS Ross had been moored in the centre of the city just beneath the Topkapi Palace, the historic home of the Ottoman Sultans.

Shore leave was cancelled for the rest of the stay for the crew after the incident, the Pentagon said.

The Turkish foreign ministry also condemned the incident saying it was "disrespectful" and "could in no way be tolerated".

The USS Ross on Thursday afternoon sailed out of Istanbul as planned and then through the Dardanelles Strait towards the Aegean Sea, the Hurriyet daily said.

The use of hoods in the protest was a reference to an incident from the 2003 Iraq war that outraged many in Turkey when US forces in northern Iraq arrested a group of Turkish soldiers, forced hoods over their heads and held them for three days.

The incident inflamed nationalist sentiment in Turkey and formed the basis of a 2006 action film about Turkish agents in Iraq, "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq".

Turkey's refusal to cooperate with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 caused a full-blown crisis in relations between Washington and Ankara.

But tension has re-emerged in recent months over Turkey's wariness of offering full support to the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

US Vice President Joe Biden is expected in Istanbul on November 21 for talks with Turkish leaders in a visit seen as crucial for smoothing out the current tensions.

The TGB claims to be loyal to the principles of modern Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and also staunchly opposed the ruling Islamic-rooted party co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Its thinking is marked by vehement anti-Americanism and it also strongly opposes Turkey's bid to join the European Union.


http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-frees-12-radicals-ugly-attack-us-sailors-190407027.html
 
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NATO does not have the mechanism to expel Turkey
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
11/14/2014

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Turkey's Prime Minister and presidential candidate Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during an election rally in Istanbul

Turkey's foreign policy is becoming more aggressively Islamist by the day. How far can it go before it ruins its relationship with the West? Or perhaps the question should be, what would Turkey have to do to get kicked out of NATO? Quite a lot, it turns out.

Ankara is set to take over the presidency of the G20 next month, and aims to use the opportunity to promote its image as a global economic power and assuage its self-image as a country increasingly isolated on the world stage and buffeted by conflict on its southern frontiers.

According to a Pew Research Center poll released in July, only 19 percent of Turks view the US positively, and 25% feel that way about the EU.

Moreover, seven in 10 Turks have an unfavorable view of NATO.

"The problem is that NATO has no mechanism to kick out a member," Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

"Countries have withdrawn before, of course, but once NATO allows a country in, i's stuck with it,"; he said. "No one expected that any NATO member would change direction so radically."

"Even if [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan swore allegiance to al-Qaida tomorrow; NATO wouldn't have any mechanism to expel him short of dissolving the alliance entirely,"said Rubin.


Since the Turkish people gave Erdogan and his Islamist AK Party a first-round victory in the presidential election in August, he has increasingly become dictatorial, clamping down on the press and the Internet, and weeding out his opponents in the police, military and the prosecutor's office.

As Erdogan has consolidated power at home, he has had a freer hand to act abroad.

Ankara has been reluctant to play a frontline role in the US-led military coalition. US officials have said Turkey's open border policy with Syria helped allow radical groups to grow there.

Libya has descended into chaos three years after the toppling of strongman Muammar Gaddafi, with warring factions battling for control and the capital Tripoli currently run by an alternative government partly backed by Islamist groups.

Turkey's appointment last month of a special representative to Libya, who became the first envoy publicly to meet with the internationally unrecognized authorities in Tripoli, is part of Ankara's efforts to promote UN-backed peace negotiations, according to senior Turkish officials.

Unless NATO comes up with a mechanism to expel or suspend members, the whole alliance could be at risk, said Rubin. It could go the way of CENTO, the Central Treaty Organization, which also counted Turkey as a member, but couldn't survive the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

"NATO governance by consensus was one of those things that looked good on paper but doesn't work well in reality," asserted Rubin. "It is the Trojan Horse all over again. Turkey can do far more harm from the inside than outside, but NATO is too paralyzed to do much about it."


And the release on Thursday of 12 Turkish nationalists detained after an attack on US sailors in Istanbul can only increase tensions. The men could still face charges for causing insult and injury.

They assaulted three sailors on a crowded street in Istanbul on Wednesday, shouting "Yankee go home", throwing paint and trying to pull hoods over the Americans' heads.

The group, members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB), were told they faced possible charges of insult, injury and breaching laws on public protests in an Istanbul court before being released by the prosecutor, the Dogan News Agency (DHA) said.

The Pentagon said shore leave had been canceled for servicemen from the US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Ross, which was expected to leave Istanbul on Thursday.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, branding it disrespectful and "impossible to view with tolerance."

"Turkey's population has displayed for many years anti-American feelings. The US will downplay the recent incident in Istanbul," Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told the Post.

"The US actually mulls changing strategy in Syria; going after [President] Bashar Assad to please the Turks and enlist their support against Islamic State," he said. "Obama's Washington still sees Turkey as an indispensable ally."

Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish columnist for Hurriyet and a regular contributor to The International New York Times, told the Post on Thursday that "although most Islamists in Turkey dislike the US, these aggressors were not Islamists, but secular nationalists."

Those that attacked the US sailors represent "a strident synthesis of Kemalism, the ideology of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and "anti-imperialist" leftism, which has its roots in the upsurge of Turkish Marxism in the 60s, explained Akyol.

"In their mind, they were taking the revenge of the "hood incident" of 2003, when some Turkish soldiers in Iraq were arrested by US soldiers," he said.

 
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The World According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
November 26, 2014

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan drew worldwide ire this week when he said men are women cannot be made "equal" during an appearance at a conference on women and justice in Istanbul.

"You cannot make women do everything men do like the communist regimes did…this is against her delicate nature," Erdogan said to the crowd, which also reportedly included his own daughter.

He went on to say:

"You cannot subject a pregnant woman to the same working conditions as a man...you cannot make a mother who has to breastfeed her child equal to a man."



Here are a few others:

On social media

"Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have to respect the Turkish Republic's laws," Erdogan said on March 30, 2014 at a rally ahead of the country's elections. "Turkey is not a banana republic."(source: AFP)

"There is now a menace which is called Twitter. The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society." (source: The Guardian on June 3, 2013)

On drinking alcohol

"I want them to know that I want these [restrictions] for the sake of their health ... Whoever drinks alcohol is an alcoholic." (source: Al Jazeera English on June 3, 2013)

On the financial markets

"Interest-rate lobby, set yourself in order. For years you have exploited the sweat of my nation. No more. Those who tried to crash the stock market without any shame: Tayyip Erdogan doesn';t have money in the stock market, it will be you who will crash." (source: The Wall Street Journal on June 10, 2013)

On the EU and democracy

"Do you have the right to take such a decision [on Turkey]? You stay silent about what's happening in France, in England and elsewhere in Europe, and you dare to take a decision on our security forces, who are exercising their duty of law enforcement against those demonstrators. You are anti-democratic...You [EU] do not respect democracy." (source: Hurriyet Daily News on June 17, 2013)

On Turkish protesters

"We are against the majority tyrannizing the minority. But we are definitely against the minority tyrannizing the majority." (source: The Guardian on June 6, 2013)

 
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