Stand Up to Turkey's Crackdown.

• Author: Cotter, Michael W.

STAND UP TO TURKEY'S CRACKDOWNS

By Emanuele Ottolenghi, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/stand-up-to-turkeys-crackdowns/#sthash.8kCee211.dpuf

This opinion piece raises some justifiable concerns about the direction Turkey's government seems to be taking. Prime Minister Recep TayyipErdogan has been engaged in consolidating power both within the Justice and Development Party (AKP is the Turkish acronym) and his own hands since being elected for a third term in 2011. The country's abysmal record in its treatment of journalists and its harsh reaction to demonstrators in Istanbul last year have received wide, and negative, coverage around the world. And legitimate concerns have been raised about whether Erdogan's actions are intended to fundamentally change Turkey's democratic form of government. Those concerns increasingly lead to considerations of what, if anything, other countries, including the U.S., can or should do about influencing political developments in Turkey.

The author takes on this task with more conviction than clear analysis. His thesis is that the West, including the U.S., has ignored what he calls "Turkey's recent autocratic turn." He then lists recent actions that most observers of Turkish politics agree raise questions about Erdogan's intentions. Unfortunately, partly due to the fact that this short essay doesn't allow a lot of background information, he jumbles these actions together in a way that both over-emphasizes the degree to which they are connected and ignores their context. In particular, his treatment of the ongoing graft scandal and subsequent dismissal of numerous police and judicial officials ignores the fact that both are related to a falling out between Erdogan and an erstwhile supporter, Fethullah Gulen, which may or may not represent a threat to Turkey's democracy. (See a...