21st Century Wire says…
As if it’s not discouraging news with allegations of President Erdogan’s recent referendum victory mired in fraud, as alleged by the opposition parties, it’s worrying to see the incumbent allied with a long established group that are known in Turkey for serious violence, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and most notably one of their members who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.
Exclusive: Turkish President Erdogan’s push toward nationalistic authoritarianism has an important ally in the political arm of the neo-fascist Grey Wolves, reports Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall All but one of Turkey’s major opposition parties denounced Sunday’s referendum to create…Read more →
President Donald Trump walks out of the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 18, 2017. (AP/Carolyn Kaster)
President Donald Trump yesterday congratulated Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following his victory in Sunday’s referendum.
The White House released a brief readout of the phone call between the two leaders in which they also discussed the recent US airstrike on Syria.
Trump’s phone call contrasts sharply with European leaders who have sharply criticized the referendum describing the narrow victory as a sign of authoritarianism.
Yesterday, the Deputy leader of the secular Kemalist CHP opposition party called for the results of Sunday’s Presidential Powers Referendum in Turkey to be nullified due to the Supreme Electoral Board of Turkey’s decision to accept ballots which did not bear the official electoral seal.
Of the many pundits analysing the Turkish referendum vote, the most absurd, even by the standards of pro-Erdogan propagandists, comes from someone called Patrick Cockburn writing in Britain’s Independent newspaper.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Kemalist opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party), has questioned the legitimacy of the referendum election which has given President Erdogan sweeping new powers.
Hours later, the Deputy leader of the CHP Bulent Tezcan called for the results of the referendum to be annulled saying,
President Erdogan who after winning a referendum on vastly expanded Presidential powers, has given a surprisingly moderate yet historically inaccurate victory speech. Shortly thereafter, he said that he approves the restoration of the death penalty.
Erdogan said in his victory speech,
With almost all ballots counted, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have won the referendum on vastly expanded Presidential, some would say, tyrannic powers.
In the last few hours of counting, the vote has narrowed to 51.41% (with over 99% of votes counted) in favour of the reforms.
Erdogan has now declared victory and congratulated his supporters.
Today, Turkey holds a referendum that if passed, will change the Constitution and fundamentally alter the political balance of power in Turkey.
The proposed changes would make Turkey’s’ President, a post currently held by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ultra-powerful and largely unaccountable position.
The referendum would abolish the all ready weakened post of Prime Minister and allow the President to personally appoint his ministers, independent of Parliament.
The aftermath of the missile strike on Sharyat air base further illustrates a fundamental problem standing in the way of a peaceful resolution of the Syrian conflict: the compulsive duplicity of Turkish President Erdogan.
Erdogan’s overweening “neo-Ottoman” ambitions – intended to carve out a role for Turkey as a Great Power achieving a sphere of influence in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean – are one of the primary reasons for the Syrian war.
