Monthly Archives: August 2015

The G20 meeting taking place in Turkey in Antalya on Nov. 15 and 16 will be a litmus test for world leaders in challenging the host nation led by authoritarian leader President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is bent on muzzling the free and independent press; seizing the capital in a political vendetta; cracking down on opposition parties, civil society and human rights groups; perpetuating a culture of corruption and imposing a highly divisive political Islamist ideology.
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Despite the fact that recent polls suggest the political landscape has not changed much and may in fact have worsened for the political Islamists, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his associates in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) believe they can reverse the bleeding in their popular support and regain their strength if they manage to put a dirty campaign strategy into motion. Continue reading →

Feeling the boomerang effect of the backlash over the bloodshed and economic woes as reflected in the poll numbers and public outcry, Turkey’s master of dirty tricks, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will either push further to the edge with more “shock and awe” violence with the hope of eventually turning the tide in public support, or drop his plan of instigating violence and find a way to postpone the elections in a last desperate attempt to delay reckoning day for him and his entourage. Continue reading →

With relentless attacks and police raids on schools affiliated with the Gülen movement, the nation’s best-performing schools, Turkey’s political Islamist rulers have done nothing but bolster their image for state-sponsored, Boko Haram-style, hostile and disturbing posturing against science, critical thinking and independent analysis. Continue reading →

The main challenge the Islamists in the Turkish government and their ringmaster President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have in recent years brought upon bilateral ties with Germany — the powerhouse of the European Union and Turkey’s largest trading partner — is their promotion through state-sponsored activities of a hostile brand of political Islamist ideology amid the Turkish and Muslim diaspora.
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Faced with weakened political strength, Turkey’s embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to have grown desperate to gain some acknowledgement and respect from foreign powers to boost his waning legitimacy at home. Continue reading →

Investing everything for a win in an early election with the hope of staying in power and avoiding legal troubles, Turkey’s strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would rather risk destroying fiscal discipline and jeopardizing economic fundamentals in an already stressed national economy. Continue reading →

As the violence surges in Turkey, perhaps deliberately provoked by beleaguered political Islamists who are struggling to stay in power ahead of a likely snap election, the country’s embattled president seems to have given an extra nudge to stoking fears about a Lebanonization of Turkish politics, something he has been trying hard to accomplish since the 2013 anti-government protests related to Gezi Park in order to survive political and legal challenges. Continue reading →