generalspeaking

Monday, March 13, 2017

The Raging Caliph: Do You Know Who I Am?!

"What took place in the Netherlands was the trampling of diplomacy, international law, practice, decency. They are all the same."
"The Netherlands did not behave like a European Union member state governed by the rule of law, but like a banana republic."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan walks between the honor guards wearing historic Turkish warriors costumes . (Adem Altan/AP Photo)

A more thuggish Islamist would be hard to uncover. There is Turkey's Erdogan accusing Germany and Holland of latter-day Nazism in their fascist zeal to to ensure that the Turkish Justice and Development party of President Erdogan not use their countries as a stepping-stone to persuading expatriate Turks living in their millions in Germany, France, Holland, Bavaria and Switzerland, to pass a referendum, anti-democratic in its intent, to give the irascible Erdogan powers equal to those of a caliph during the Ottoman Empire.

While contemptibly accusing Germany and the Netherlands of practising Nazism, Erdogan himself is wielding a fascist government, arresting journalists, civil servants, members of the military, the police and the legal community as well as opposing politicians in the tens of thousands, accusing them all of having taken part in a failed coup last summer. Viewing them all as Gulenists opposing his rule, his country has become a bleak cauldron of Islamist fundamentalist coersion. Any whom Erdogan suspects of defying him labelled an enemy.

And Erdogan does not take kindly to enemies. Turkish Kurds, are once again the enemy in big bold letters, requiring a resumption of attacks against Kurdish villages and citizens whom Erdogan accuses of sheltering members of the PKK, the militant wing of the Turkish Kurdish population, struggling to achieve a long-yearned-for return of their own ancient lands to their sovereign state. In the guise of fighting Islamic State in Syria, Erdogan, who gave ISIL haven in Turkey, targets the fighting factions of Syrian and Turkish Kurds who are legitimately battling ISIL.

Any vestige of Democracy has long since flown from Turkey. Calling on the European Union to denounce Holland and Germany for their undemocratic reaction to Turkey's presumed entitled entry to other countries for political manipulation of the citizens of those other nations is not only a vibrant example of Turkey's lopsided sense of sanctimonious 'rights', but a startling example of uncivil and outrageous stupidity foisted on others. All the symptoms of a true 'Banana Republic'.

People wave Turkish national flags during a demonstration near the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam on March 11, 2017. Photo: MARTEN VAN DIJL/AFP/Getty Images

By inciting ethnic Turkish citizens of Holland to protest their government's decision to disallow two of Turkey's cabinet ministers, its foreign minister and its family affairs minister, Erdogan has betrayed his authoritarian volatility as a crass manipulator portraying Turks as persecuted outside their country of origin, in a ploy to persuade them to vote for the referendum that will grant him unlimited presidential powers and the earned privilege of presiding over Turkey into eternity.

Not only is Erdogan defying his own Turkish constitution by entering other countries for the purpose of political manipulation, he is also demonstrating precisely why Turkey is not fit to be a member of NATO, much less an aspiring EU member. The violent protests that ensued with Erdogan's expressions of rage at his plans being foiled, with police attempting to restore public order while being stoned by ethnic Turks in the Dutch capital, having to use riot control methods to do so, shows just how violently disruptive to law and order Erdogan can be in other countries.

And how Erdogan reacts to his wishes being spurned abroad is an example of the manner in which ethnic Turks behave when their values, traditions and religious beliefs come under question in the face of such displays. It is typical that Erdogan, expressing tribal, ethnic, religious and political actions resonant with the Middle East's incapacity to regulate its responses with any degree of moderation, cites an insult to diplomatic action while trashing any vestige of diplomacy in his demands, reactions and abysmal behaviour.

He insults, with "Nazism is alive in the West" and the Dutch will "pay the price" for spurning his calculated intrusions, while raging that Turkey refuses to be appeased without the offense causing the offender to become a spineless supplicant for forgiveness.

"Listen Netherlands, you’ll jump once, you’ll jump twice, but my people will thwart your game. You can cancel our foreign minister’s flight as much as you want, but let’s see how your flights will come to Turkey now."
"They don’t know diplomacy or politics. They are Nazi remnants. They are fascists."
Fascist extraordinaire Recep Tayyip Erdogan