I would be the last to defend the man, but even though he's giving the usual pavlov reaction to the G-word, there can be no doubts that he admits that the actual gruesome facts did happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
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I would be the last to defend the man, but even though he's giving the usual pavlov reaction to the G-word, there can be no doubts that he admits that the actual gruesome facts did happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
By qualifying them. That's the usual weasel tactic: "Oh, it was bad but others were equally bad or even worse! And we had victims, too!"
The Turks minimize the number of Armenian casualties, grossly exaggerate the number of Turkish casualties, and deny the fact that there was an organized effort to commit the genocide. So the only thing they admit is that people were killed, and not necessarily by the Turks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/18/wo...ts-racism.html
Apparently accusing someone of genocide is now a form of racism. I wonder if Erdogan remembers what he accused the Israelis of.
Not exactly and you'd be surprised about how open the actual debate in Turkey is. However, for a politician like Erdogan both over-reacting to the usage of the word genocide and reacting tough to both Pope (as head of Christianity) and Europe (both hated and admired) could mean extra votes from the extreme nationalist sectors of society.Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
And in the upcoming election every vote counts because Erdogan needs a 323 seat majority to be able to change the constitution in order to become an autocratic president (without the risk of losing powers due to a change of heart in Parliament. That to Erdogan would be worth a bit of derission and angry reactions abroad.
Today at least one AKP office was sporting a banner reading 'Paskaliyaniz Kutlu Olsun'. That translates into Blessed Easter, and it's an absolute first. Up till today those banners were reserved for muslim holidays exclusively.
I'm a bit leery of "open debates" which end with the forced retirement of government officials just because they used the "g"-word.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32549012 Apparently Erdogan hasn't obtained his sexist credentials yet.
http://www.todayszaman.com/national_...et_381912.html The guy seems to have the emotional intelligence of a 5-year-old.
We're gonna have a party on the eve of the elections, we decided to call it 'Freedom Party'.
Heh, sounds like our US election party :p
AKP lost its majority :) still the biggest party of course.
Seems like good news that he's lost his majority and the ability to turn Turkey into a Presidential nation, though we'll see what happens from here. If the AKP remain in power we'll have to see if they accept moderation as the public have voted or just turn away from democracy. Either seems possible right now.
I am very happy with the results, I was in a plane waiting in line to take off and the last thing I got on my phone before I was made to switch it off was that HDP had made it into parliament and that that effectively has ended the authoritarian rule of the Padisah. Everybody knows the constitution should be changed, but the Erdogan plans would have been a disaster for the country.
Do you seriously think Erdogan is going to stop being authoritarian now he's lost his majority?
To be authoritarian he needs his party to be able to rule without any partners. That has become impossible as of last sunday. Now that he's lacking a party with a majority in parliament, it will be quite doable to pin him to his constitutional role. Which is largely ceremonial.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
He hasn't been on TV in 2 days; that's quite remarkable for a man who was on TV near non-stop in the run up to the elections.
Its not impossible so long as he can maintain his grips on power, which means primarily if the military will chose him over Parliament (which I extremely doubt but is possible). That is how nations sometimes transition from democracy to dictatorship.
The Turkish military has been defanged. They decide nothing. The power is in the hands of the bureaucracy, which has mostly been put in power by Erdogan. I'm not sure I trust them to respect constitutional rule if Erdogan decides to push things too far (e.g. ban one of the opposition parties).
Even Erdogan knows he's got nothing to win from a full blown civil war. He can't afford to ban the HDP and there is no way he could justify banning either CHP or MHP.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
The impunity Erdogan could operate with was contingent on a majority in parliament that now has been lost; the army won't save him and neither will the bureaucracy.
Doesn't mean he won't try. I hope you're right, but Erdogan hasn't been a model for constitutional niceties.
Erdogan isn't actually the beacon of rationality, especially when he feels slighted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
But you must have noticed his one-man-rule plan has been thwarted. So it doesn't all boil down to his personal rationality.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
:bored:Quote:
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, sees high strategic stakes. He says he would ditch efforts to join the European Union if Turkey were accepted by the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), formed in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The SCO “is better and more powerful, and we have common values with them,” Mr Erdogan declared.
He knows Chinese tourists are being attacked in Istanbul?
Korean tourists. :p
He sounds like our SVP, always when they get confronted with the fact that the EU is our main business partner they suggest we should do more business with China and Russia instead of Germany :bulb:
That was his luck :) The chinese restaurant that was destroyed was Turkish owned and the 'chinese' chef was an Uyghur (or however you write that).Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
This topic seems to be as good a place as any; it has turned out that one of the two suicide terrorists who killed 106 people in Ankara is the brother of a suicide terrorist who killed 33 people in Suruc (a Turkish town accross the border from Kobani). Both were members of a radical group, both went to Syria to fight for IS. The state obviously didn't care to have a closer look at either of them. Not even when the first brother blew himself and 33 other people to pieces.
I am no big fan of conspiracy theories, and I am totally aware that if IS is behind this they managed to kill two birds with one stone, but I have to wonder. How the hell did this second brother manage to be in Ankara bomb and all when it was a given that he would pose this type of threath?