by Barry Rubin
More evidence piles up every day that the Turkish government is moving toward radical Islamism yet Western policymakers pretend it merely combines a nice flavor of moderate Islam combined with democracy.
It is clear, for example, asPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, "It's
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was right when he said that Erdogan is "slowly turning into someone like [Libyan dictator Muammar] Qadhafi or [Venezuelan dictator] Hugo Chavez....It's his choice. The problem is not
Meanwhile, the regime also continues to arrest military officers on trumped up coup charges. Here's a good article on how the government is trying to intimidate the armed forces into intimidation, removing the last obstacle to its remaining in power for a very long time and doing as it pleases.
If this kind of thing--making friends with Iran, reducing internal freedoms, arresting scholars and others on phony coup charges--happened in a South American or Asian country it would set off alarm bells and be dramatic front page news. But as part of the denial psychology with which much of the West deals with anything happening in a Muslim-majority country it fits right in.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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