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His critics often joke that when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledges democratic reforms, one should run away immediately. His latest charm offensive in November, aimed at repairing Turkey's badly-strained ties with the West and Western institutions, has proven that the joke still holds value. "We don't see ourselves elsewhere but in Europe," Erdoğan said on November 21. "We envisage building our future together with Europe." Two days later, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar described NATO as the "cornerstone of our defense and security policy" and said that Turkey was looking forward to c...

According to Turkish news site Gazete Duvar, a total of 128,872 people have been indicted in the past six years for insulting Erdoğan. Of those, 27,824 had to stand trial and 9,556 were convicted. Apparently, Erdoğan wants a democratic system without opposition. But who cares about the Constitution in a country where the governing bloc is proposing to close down even the Constitutional Court, in addition to banning opposition parties? All these autocratic measures occurred in the less than half-year since Erdoğan pledged democratic reforms. A few years ago, then Prime Minister Ahmet Davut...

Last Updated On: Apr 27 2021 04:47 Gmt+3 Independent opposition deputy Ümit Özdağ on Monday targeted Garo Paylan, an Armenian deputy from the pro-Kurdish left-wing Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), over Paylan’s comments supporting the recognition of the Armenian genocide. “Talat Pasha didn’t exile patriotic Armenians but those who were backstabbers like you,” Özdağ tweeted in response to Paylan. “You will also go through a Talat Pasha experience when it is time, and you should.” On April 24, observed as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day in Armenia and the diaspora, Paylan had...

The Ottoman Road Untraveled April 27, 2021 | By Alberto M. Fernandez The Biden administration's recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks initially received a relatively muted response by Turkish officials. Foreign Minister Cavusoglu tweeted "We have nothing to learn from anybody on our own past," while Erdoğan's nationalist political ally Devlet Bahçeli retorted that Turkey's history was "faultless" with "neither genocides nor massacres" by the Turkish nation. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin chided the U.S. president to "look to his own history and pr...

April 20, 2021 —  Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from New Left Review — Ten years ago, Erdoğan’s Turkey was hailed in Washington as an example to the Muslim world—a free-market, pro-American Islamic democracy with high growth rates, renowned cultural monuments and beautiful beaches. ‘A model partner’, Obama affirmed in 2009, as he congratulated the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). 1 Today, with perhaps 50,000 oppositionists in jail, including scores of journalists, politicians, lawyers and civil servants, Turkey is exporting ra...