Erdogan's purge in Turkey

Religious parties are a problem in Israel; the BJP is a problem in India; Christian Dominion infiltration in the US a la Gulen's (alleged) strategy is a problem. Mosly potential as yet, but the global resurgence of religion in politics since the Cold War is pretty evident and it's not over yet.

Do they unconstitutionally usurp state power, or just advance a religious agenda? The former is a major problem, the latter usually much less so.

McHrozni
 
Ironically, it buys into the fantasy that the US is central to everything, which runs counter to the idea that the West's days of power are done and Turkey is about to become great again under Erdogan's inspired leadership.

You're right, it's rather funny that they simply don't see the glaring contradiction.

McHrozni
 
To the suprise of nobody the state of emergency, which grants Erdoğan sweeping powers, has been extended another three months. As to be expected, the lira dropped in value against the dollar to about 3.02 TL. The 3 lira threshhold is equated with having a bad economy in the minds of many Turks.

Here is a link to the WSJ. (Hopefully, it won't be behind a pay wall.)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-extends-state-of-emergency-1475507092

Following last week’s National Security Council recommendation that the government extend its emergency powers, Mr. Erdogan said it was possible that even a year might not be enough for Turkey to wrap up its multipronged war on terror.

I am not betting on the state of emergency ending any time soon. A megalomaniac like Erdoğan will find it hard to give it up now that he's had a taste of this kind of power. His hardcore followers don't care about the economics because many of them have been working hard to get by their whole lives anyway. A weak lira means nothing to them.
His purge has left the foreign headlines, but it hasn't stopped. Judges and police officers are still being cleared out. All of those teachers remain sacked
 
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Do they unconstitutionally usurp state power, or just advance a religious agenda? The former is a major problem, the latter usually much less so.

McHrozni
However, the latter can be obnoxious as well. For instance, German opinion polls consistently show 70% in favour of gay marriage, but the CDU prohibits it from being legislated; if their coalition partner SPD would vote for such legislation, they'd trigger a government crisis. Likewise, the Dutch and Belgian christian-democratic parties have for years held up legislation on topics like abortion and euthanasia, because they were indispensable for a government coalition.

Apart from that all those parties only vaguely operate on Christian principles, none of them have ever been in the position to usurp state power, as they never achieved a majority in parliament (except, IIRC, the German CDU once in the early 1950s).
 
His purge has left the foreign headlines, but it hasn't stopped. Judges and police officers are still being cleared out. All of those teachers remain sacked

The fall-out of the purge is still noticeable though in various countries. Erdogoon has incited violence from his supporters in, e.g., the Netherlands against Gülen supporters. There have also been arson attacks. The ambassador has distributed a leaflet with a list of organizations and businesses to boycott. Turkish parents have withdrawn their children from schools that are associated with the Gülen movement. Some of these parents also instituted a social media campaign calling the schools "terrorist schools". One of the schools went to court and got an injunction against this.

And similar things have been happening in other countries with a large population of Turkish descent. I'm not at all a fan of the Gülen movement, but the way Erdogoon stokes unrest among Turks in foreign countries is quite nauseating.
 
The MHP is not pro-Islamic. They're fascist. They're the political arm of the Grey Wolves.

It recently turned from a secularist to a more pro-Islamist stance, according to Wikipedia. It probably didn't do so in order to lose votes.

McHrozni
 
However, the latter can be obnoxious as well.

Ah no doubt. All groups who believe in nonesense are at least annoying. However there is a profound difference in not legalizing gay marriage to unconstitutionally usurping power in order to make the whole country bow down to their god and version of reality.

One is obnoxious, the other a threat to civilization. I'll go out on a limb and say merely obnoxious is the lesser evil. Not least because the particular issue you mention is a total no-go zone for Islamists.

McHrozni
 
To the suprise of nobody the state of emergency, which grants Erdoğan sweeping powers, has been extended another three months. As to be expected, the lira dropped in value against the dollar to about 3.02 TL. The 3 lira threshhold is equated with having a bad economy in the minds of many Turks.

Here is a link to the WSJ. (Hopefully, it won't be behind a pay wall.)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-extends-state-of-emergency-1475507092

I am not betting on the state of emergency ending any time soon. A megalomaniac like Erdoğan will find it hard to give it up now that he's had a taste of this kind of power. His hardcore followers don't care about the economics because many of them have been working hard to get by their whole lives anyway. A weak lira means nothing to them.
His purge has left the foreign headlines, but it hasn't stopped. Judges and police officers are still being cleared out. All of those teachers remain sacked

This is quite idiotic. If the coupsters had this amount of support, they would've won easily. The most depressing part however is that this is actually an internal conflict between two Islamist parties that secularists are too weak to exploit.

McHrozni
 

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