Prognosis? Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Turkey’s parliament backed emergency measures Thursday giving authorities broad powers to pursue alleged supporters of a failed coup, even as the government said it has rounded up nearly 10,000 people since the attempted military takeover…
The strengthened hand for authorities — with tens of thousands of others under scrutiny or suspended from their jobs — came amid further signals of more crackdowns to come…
[President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] described a ‘virus’ within the Turkish military and state institutions that had spread like ‘cancer.’
(Washington Post, July 21, 2016)
Ominously, Erdogan withdrew Turkey from the European convention on human rights this week; no doubt telegraphing his intent as much as preempting squeamish complaints about abuses of human rights and civil liberties.
Not to mention the hypocrisy in Erdogan now censoring or shutting down the very mainstream and social-media platforms that enabled him to summon flash mobs to thwart tanks in the streets, which clearly saved his ass.
NOTE: Erdogan’s NATO ally, Barack Obama, is being conspicuously silent. This, despite the clear and present danger of Erdogan turning Turkey’s democracy into a dictatorship. Whereas his putative mentor, Vladimir Putin, is being conspicuously supportive. This, because he knows that, if Erdogan can get away with this in Turkey, he surely can in Russia — if any group dares try to mount a coup.
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