Turkey slaps Obama again
The New Republic reports that Turkey has let down Obama yet again, but, he's probably otherwise not caring that they don't take to his attempts to woo the Islamic world to taking his side. In any case, as told here:
Just a few weeks ago, Power Line mentioned the increasing problems with Turkey, not the least of which is their premier, Erdogan. Harold Rhode writes:
It was clear that Turkey would be one of the several obstacles in the Security Council to sanctions against Iran’s nuclear adventures. Along with Russia, China, and Brazil, all of which the president has also wooed with extravagant but futile gestures. Alas.Boy, I think I am so not going to find Brazil an appealing place to visit, if their political structure is willing to make deals with Iran.
Today’s news of the deal consummated among Turkey, Brazil, and Iran is a diplomatic pretext designed to undercut the sanctions regime which was itself being systematically enfeebled so as to get Moscow and Beijing to go along.
Just a few weeks ago, Power Line mentioned the increasing problems with Turkey, not the least of which is their premier, Erdogan. Harold Rhode writes:
The present Turkish government [under prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, once a protégé of the Islamist Necmettin Erbakan] is methodically taking over every aspect of society, including every branch of government, businesses, schools and newspapers. How has this affected the citizens of Turkey? Natan Sharansky has posed what he calls the village square test. Can a person go out in the village square and say he does not like the government? Can you talk freely? I've been visiting Turkey regularly since 1968. People were always prepared to talk about politics - but no longer. Today, the Turks are obviously afraid of something. It saddens me to see this taking place in an industrious country that was in the vanguard of moving Islam into the modern world.I'm afraid "moderate" is hardly a way of describing even the old Ottoman regime. Let's not forget their massacre of many Armenians during WW1, one of the many things people like Erdogan are not willing to own up about. And he's taking a serious risk of downplaying the danger of Islamofascism. Just take a look at this horror story of another victim of honor murders. Sorry, but Rhode is blowing it there. You can't move into the modern world convincingly if you don't shed the reprehensible "cultures" and leave them behind.
The battle for Turkey's identity is far from over. The forces of secularism are waiting right below the surface. There are a lot of passionate, if disorganized, secularists. Yet if a moderate form of Ottoman Turkish Islam is to be revived, it must stand up to the onslaught of Wahhabism and the temptations of Islamism.
If matters continue as they are, both in Turkey and Iran, then one plausible outcome might eventually be that Turkey and Iran switch places. Iran, after its Islamist experience, may rejoin the community of nations, while Turkey may turn toward Islamism and become a driving anti-Western force throughout the Islamic world. How sad for Turkey; how sad for one of the most interesting and industrious peoples in the Islamic world; how dangerous for the world.
Labels: Armenia, China, iran, islam, Latin America, misogyny, Russia, terrorism, turkey, United States
