Turkish Politics & Internal Affairs

[OguzSenturk]

Maybe even open a thread about it on the international sections?

Go for it bro

 

[Solomon2]

Erdoğan to Me: Stay Out of Turkey
by Daniel Pipes

Feb 22, 2017
Cross-posted from National Review Online

I participated yesterday in a conference about the eastern Mediterranean at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) just outside Tel Aviv; and because Tel Aviv is the diplomatic center of Israel, its events attract a good number of diplomats. Yesterday was no exception, with a foreign minister and other diplomats from several eastern Mediterranean countries, including Albania, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey.

My talk surveyed the role of Islamism in the region. In the question-and-answer period, Turkey's newly-appointed ambassador, Kemal Ökem, vigorously protested points I had made about his country. I defended these, then challenged Ökem (in a video that can be viewed here):

Pipes: I started going to Turkey in 1972. I studied Turkish, not very successfully, but I did study it. I've gone back many times. And at this point, I dare not go back to Turkey because I am critical, as you may have heard, of the government and, in particular, I supported the July 15th coup [a position] which is absolutely an outrage in Turkey. And so, I dare not go back to Turkey. And so, let me ask you, Mr. Ambassador, would it be it safe for me to go to Turkey and spend some time there or just go through the airport? You have a great airline that I would love to use but I dare not use it. Would I be safe going to Turkey?

Ökem: If you say that you support the failed coup attempt that killed 250 Turkish civilians and if you that say you support the kind of organization which we call a terrorist organization, which is a religious cult by the way, and trying to export something, if you say that, I would rather advise you not to go there because you be an accomplice, considered an accomplice. [laughter]

Pipes: That's what I was expecting.

Ökem: It's an expected answer but it's legitimate answer. I mean, I would advise you to find good legal advice before you travel to Turkey.

Kemal Ökem (standing right) and me (standing left) in discussion.​

The name of that "terrorist organization" was not spoken, but Ökem was referring to the so-called Fethullahçı Terör Örgütü, or FETÖ (Fethullah Terror Organization). To the rest of the world, it's the Hizmet movement founded by Fethullah Gülen, a former close and important ally of Erdoğan's until the two of them split. No one else sees it as violent, much less terroristic. Erdoğan's accusation that it organized the July 2016 coup attempt is noxious and absurd.

This ambassador's statement has several interesting implications:

• Left unspoken was what would happen to me, were I foolish enough to venture to Turkey, so I'll make it explicit here: as someone deemed an accomplice of FETÖ, I would be jailed without charges and held for who-knows-how-long.
• This is despite my having a long record of being critical of the Gülen movement. For example, the Middle East Quarterly, a journal I publish, ran so important a critical article on Hizmet by Rachel Sharon-Krespin in 2009 that it was translated and prominently featured by the leftist Turkish daily Cumhuriyet.
• An arch critic of the Soviet Union, such as my father, Richard Pipes, had no problem visiting Russia in the still-repressive post-Stalinist era. In other words, Ankara, a member of NATO and a formal ally of the United States, imposes a higher level of thought control than did the U.S.S.R.

My Cold Warrior father, Richard Pipes, could visit Leningrad in 1959.​

• Turkish Airlines would seem to be the only airline whose passengers must pass an ideological test if they hope to complete their journey without danger of getting thrown in jail.

I have visited Turkey, one of my favorite destinations, 10 times over 45 years, with the final trip in 2012. I shall miss the country. Like tens of millions of Turks, I look forward to celebrating the early termination of the Erdoğan regime. (February 22, 2017)

 

[SouI]

Is this true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/834809069563215873

 

[what]

Is this true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/834809069563215873

He's usually reliable but I have not seen it somewhere else so far.

 

[OguzSenturk]

http://www.haberturk.com/gundem/haber/1403241-numan-kurtulmustan-hocali-katliami-mesaji

Vice PM Kurtulmuş condemns Khojali Genocide which commited by racist Armenians.

 

[Islamic faith&Secularism]

https://twitter.com/x/status/835838309876269056

The so called ''flag'' of another PKK terrorism supporter is waving in the international airport of Atatürk for the first time.

 

[KediKesenFare3]

This is NOT the flag of PKK. It's the flag of the Northern Iraqi autonomous Kurdish region. You can see the Iraqi state flag in the middle. Nothing wrong with this. This picture was taken during the last visit of Barzani.

The opposite of what you're implying here is true; many Iraqi Kurds are demanding from the Turkish gov't to use only the Kurdish flag during Barzani's visits in Turkey.

 

[Islamic faith&Secularism]

It is a fact that PKK terrorists get influence over norhtern Iraq from Mount Qandil to Kirkuk, Makhmour, Sinjar, and Rabia, they have even been given salary for that. However, that so called leader Barzani has taken no action against the PKK terrorists but some words to make happy Erdoğan. Even 1 or 2 months ago Iraqi PM Ibadi said they would not fight against the PKK terrorists in Iraq, just like Barzani said they would never fight with Kurds including PKK terrorists. Therefore, The pkk terrorists are so free that they walk in the streets of Kirkuk which is historically Turkmen and Arab city.

It is a fact that that so called Barzani took ''officially'' control of northern Iraq with help of Erdoğan.
It is fact that PYD took control of northern Syria with help of Erdoğan.
It is fact that HDP took control of South eastern Turkey with help of Erdoğan.

Any one is free to raise objection, then i am ready to prove those facts.

 

[KediKesenFare3]

Nice try.

Turkey's Erdogan, Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani discuss fight against militants
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-erdogan-barzani-idUSKCN10Y236

Iraqi Kurdish Leader Says PKK Is Destabilizing Northern Syria and Iraq, Wants Them Gone
https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/1...zing-northern-syria-and-iraq-wants-them-gone/

 

[Islamic faith&Secularism]

Words and more words for years to make Erdoğan happy as i already said, but no action.

Thank you for backing up my point.

 

[SouI]

Words and more words for years to make Erdoğan happy as i already said, but no action.

Thank you for backing up my point.

Well I know for a fact that PKK members are dying to campaign a no result in the upcoming referendum.

That alone says enough about the reality behind the conspiracy theory of them and Erdo you just alleged.

 

[KediKesenFare3]

Barzani even handed over PKK terrorists to Turkey in the past. PKK probabaly hates Barzani even more than they hate the Turkish state.

 

[Islamic faith&Secularism]

Dear Erdoğan lover, please stop telling fairy tales against the facts, otherwise you will lose the credibility as a person who repeadetly claims to be a secular and also liberal muslim.

Here is another irony.

 

[HannibalBarca]

Barzani even handed over PKK terrorists to Turkey in the past. PKK probabaly hates Barzani even more than they hate the Turkish state.

They call him the little Dog of Turkey...

 

[OguzSenturk]

I don't understand what is wrong with the KRG flag. We should get used to this flag since we have diplomatic relation with KRG and these visits will not stop anytime soon. Well, Kedikesen is right, it is not a PKK flag lol.