The passage of the Islamic President Erdogan in Belgium has left ugly marks, with Philippe, King of the Belgians,

October 6, 2015 By administrator

The passage of the Islamic-conservative President Erdogan in Belgium has left ugly marks, while Philippe, King of the Belgians, the decorated Knight of the Order of Leopold.
Not only this distinction arose improperly, but increasingly it is almost a diplomatic incident eventually established between the two countries.

Thus, RTBF, which monitors the movements of neo-Sultan, reveals that the physical and violent clashes took place between the Belgian and Turkish security services during the visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Belgium.

It was at the meeting of Sunday, October 4 took place a first muscular confrontation between Belgian and Turkish security services.

The next day was no different during the visit of the Egmont Institute in Val Duchesse. This time it’s a much more violent altercation between services he was given to attend. All because the gentlemen of the bodyguards of Turkish President, availing themselves of their mission, felt that it was up to them to check the rooms in which Turkish President had to go, while Belgian side it was not issue since their responsibility to make this work under the protection of a high-ranking visitor in their territory.

In the end, the two parties came to blows, several exchanging blows.

According to RTBF incidents were caused by “lack of respect” Turkish services, in the words used Belgian side.

The State Security confirmed to the radio-television organization that the situation was “difficult or tense.”

Tuesday, October 6, 2015,
Jean Eckian © armenews.com

Erdogan in Strasbourg: Help! “Allahu Akbar” The fanatics coming back & no single reference to Islamic State!

October 6, 2015 By administrator

By Ara Toranian

There is only one people, the Turks, and Erdogan is their prophet. This is essentially the impression left by the sensational Erdogan meeting in Strasbourg on October 4. In front of 12,000 fanatical Turks, waving national flags and thousands of punctuating the master sentences with “Allahu Akbar” chanted in unison, Turkish President has made two hours the full range of his Islamic-nationalist directory. Claiming the largest Ottoman victories and being in the line of sultans or rulers 1915, it landed in Turkish conqueror of modern times, urging his troops to invest the French political ground to serve the exceptional destiny of their country who “is behind them, which does not forget! “. All wrapped in a religious bath, came with a mufti of the country to say the prayer. Guaranteed result: the jubilant crowd gave a standing ovation as a “rock star” to use the expression of AFP.

This delusional speech, underpinned by the sacrosanct crusade against terrorism, however, has not made a single reference to Daech Islamic State against which Ankara is supposedly went to war. It is now a long time since the Turkish President justified his entrance into the Western coalition in Syria by the need to fight against “terrorism”, referring back to back, in a way also totally unacceptable and inappropriate and Daech PKK. As if one could put it on an equal footing jihadist barbarism and a national liberation movement, which was also negotiating with the Turkish authorities before they unilaterally break the truce, seeing the chaos on their border south a historic opportunity to end the Kurdish resistance. Objective which they engage in leisure since August (more than a thousand Kurds killed), causing at most a few timid Western remarks on the priority targets … Nothing to do with the outcry has led the first Russian strikes Syria on objectives that were not clearly identified as belonging to the sensu scrito Islamic state. Double standards? Would that be possible ?

Tuesday, October 6, 2015,
Ara © armenews.com

Did Erdogan’s son Bilal flee Turkey or went to Studies with possibly billion of dollars ?

October 6, 2015 By administrator

President Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan (Photo: DHA)

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s younger son Bilal Erdoğan, who was one of the prime suspects in Turkey’s largest corruption case ever which was revealed on Dec. 17-25, 2013, has settled in the city of Bologna in Italy, along with his wife and children following the June 7 parliamentary election in which the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that President Erdoğan founded lost its majority in Parliament, a Turkish daily has reported.

According to the Cumhuriyet daily, Erdoğan’s son moved to Italy following the election to continue his Ph.D. education at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, where he suspended study years ago, and has enrolled his children in a school there. Bilal Erdoğan also reportedly asked for security guards from the Italian government.

Citing confidential sources, the newspaper said Bilal Erdoğan made the decision to leave the country and register in the school that he started in 2007 following the June election after the AK Party failed to secure enough seats in Parliament to form a single-party government. The result also undermined Erdoğan’s goal of gaining 400 AK Party deputies in Parliament and switch the country to a presidential system that would increase his powers.

An official from the school’s administration refused to answer Cumhuriyet’s questions, saying it cannot disclose information about its students. However, Cumhuriyet says Bilal Erdoğan has already completed his courses for the Ph.D. and is only required to write his thesis, a process which does not require him to be at the school permanently but still enables him to secure residential permission for two years.

On Sunday night, Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni’s claimed that Bilal Erdoğan went to Italy on Sept. 27 with large sums of money. Pro-government media outlets have confirmed the whistleblower’s allegations; however, it is claimed that he is there because of his Ph.D.

Saying Bilal flew to Italy on Sept. 27 and the plan is for him to remain there for a while and possibly bring some family members over at a later time, Fuat Avni wrote: “They are planning to keep Bilal in Italy until the [Nov. 1] election. They will determine whether he will be coming back according to the situation after the election.”

Claiming that there is a plan in place for President Erdoğan and his family to escape if necessary after Nov. 1, the whistleblower also said Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu is organizing the plan.

Fuat Avni also tweeted on Monday that after Erdoğan’s possible flight from the country was revealed, the presidential palace was concerned on Monday morning and there were fears the revelation would “cause resentment in the bureaucracy.” The whistleblower also claims other people are being used by President Erdoğan to manage his money secretly and are being sent abroad.

Source: Zaman

Russia air strikes in Syria worrying: Turkish president Erdogan

October 4, 2015 By administrator

Turkey’s president has expressed concern over Russia’s bombing campaign against terrorists in Syria as Moscow says its airstrikes have inflicted severe damage on the Daesh Takfiri group.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Russia’s actions in Syria are “worrying and disturbing.”

“The steps Russia is taking and the bombing campaign in Syria are quite unacceptable to Turkey,” he added.

The Turkish president acknowledged that Russia’s airstrikes against the Western-backed militants, who are fighting the government in Syria, have “saddened” him.

Erdogan’s remarks came after the Russian defense ministry announced Russian forces have intensified their anti-militancy operations in Syria.

“Over the past 24 hours SU-34, SU-24M and SU-25 jets made 20 sorties,” it said.

Russia’s SU-25 jets have targeted a training camp in the northwestern Idlib Province and “destroyed the terrorists’ hideouts and a workshop making makeshift explosive devices including ‘suicide belts’,” it said.

“From the airbase of Hmeimim, the Russian aviation group is continuing to ramp up air strikes using high-precision missiles against the ISIS (Daesh) facilities in Syria,” it said.

The base of Hmeimim is situated in Latakia Province on the Mediterranean coast.

The defense ministry said its warplanes had used powerful concrete-buster munitions in its precision-targeting operations against Daesh.

“Four command posts of ISIS armed groups have been destroyed with the help of concrete-piercing BETAB-500 bombs,” said the defense ministry.

SU-34 bombers attacked a Daesh training camp and ammunition depot in Raqa Province, dropping guided bombs and destroying the camp, the ministry said.

The Russian raids have drawn criticism from Western governments and their allies in the Middle East, which have been supporting the militants operating in the region.

Russia, however, has dismissed the Western propaganda against its military offensive, saying its airstrikes, which began on Wednesday, are only targeting terrorists such as Daesh and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Espionage trial involving Turks in Germany reveals alleged money transfers

September 18, 2015 By administrator

Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu sits in front of the regional appeal court in Koblenz, Germany on Sept. 9. (Photo: Reuters)

Three suspects of Turkish origin have been charged with espionage in an indictment prepared by the German attorney-general that includes wiretapped phone conversations revealing transfers of huge sums of money and claims of Germany being the true enemy of Turkey.

In the third hearing of the suspects’ trial, provincial Police Chief Steffan Blasius testified that a suspect and former aide of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Muhammed Taha Gergerlioğlu, 59, frequently communicated with German national Göksel Güler, also a suspect in the case, and many others, some of whom remain unidentified.

Blasius said the police prepared 3,300 pages of transcripts from more than 20,000 wiretapped phone and Internet communications. Police only mentioned the headings of the transcripts in court, without going into detail. Blasius read headings such as “Ismail al-Buti, 500 million USD,” “Swiss Bank, power of attorney, 500 million USD” and “To be given to RTE [Erdoğan]” in the Koblenz High Court.

Last year, the leader of the Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, claimed Erdoğan has eight Swiss bank accounts. He called on the president to prove otherwise, but Erdoğan has never responded.

During the trial of the suspects, the third of whom is Turkish national Ahmet Duran Y. and all of whom were arrested in Germany in December on suspicion of espionage, the court rejected the defense’s attempt to have the indictment thrown out because of ongoing cooperation over terrorism between the two countries.

In May, the attorney-general filed charges against the trio, accusing them of spying on behalf of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Blasius stated that Güler had acted as a sort of personal secretary for Gergerlioğlu, organizing his itinerary and picking him up from the airport when he came to Germany. He said the two originally spoke over the phone, but later switched to written communication, often using messaging software, including Skype, Viber, Tango and WhatsApp.

Among the headings of transcribed messages were “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will reach [out to] 7 billion people and bring justice to the world” and “Arab media launched a campaign against TR [Turkey], all except Al Jazeera.”

‘Germany real enemy of Turkey’

A message Gergerlioğlu sent to an unidentified person on Aug. 18, 2014, stated, “Germans are our real enemies,” “These [Germans] are true enemies of Islam” and “Germans did not take it well that THY [Turkish Airlines] outperformed Lufthansa.”

Blasius said many messages included comments about Fethullah Gülen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the US and who has inspired a civil society movement in his name. One message even noted that the Israeli ambassador had attended an event organized by the Gülen movement.

Gülen, who is internationally acclaimed for his promotion of interfaith dialogue, tolerance and education, served as a spiritual leader and imam before moving to the US in 1999. He became a target of Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government following the eruption of a graft scandal that implicated Erdoğan’s inner circle in late 2013.

Erdoğan has accused the Gülen movement of operating a “parallel structure” of supporters in the judiciary and the police force who initiated the graft probes, while the movement denies the charge.

Turkish spies are said to have been ordered to spy on Erdoğan’s opponents in Germany, including members of the Kurdish minority, the faith-based Gülen movement and other Turkish nationals critical of the Turkish leadership.

According to court documents, the three were charged with tracking and spying on Turkish and Kurdish dissidents who would be detained upon returning to Turkey. Blasius said police had recovered many photographs from the communications, including some of demonstrations by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Bielefeld and Mannheim.

The suspects allegedly profiled Alevi groups in particular. One message was titled “Regarding a PKK and Alevi rally in Koln: German intelligence is supporting atheist Alevis and secular Kurds against Turkey with lots of money. They are swimming in a pool of money. German anarchists are supporting this rally as well.”

Gergerlioğlu also organized a social group, called the “New İstanbul Civilization (YİM),” on WhatsApp, with more than 50 participants, who exchanged information and photos. In his messages, Gergerlioğlu talked about setting up a wide intelligence network, stressing that all information exchanged within the group would be assessed by MİT. He said: “MİT infiltrated the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIL]. Foreign intelligence exposed that. The PKK is arming. Don’t worry; they will use it against ISIL.”

Gergerlioğlu was reportedly sent by MİT head Hakan Fidan with a fund of 25,000 euros to launch a consulting firm for German-Turkish companies in the city of Bad Dürkheim with Güler in 2011.

The indictment states that the suspects were engaged in acts of espionage for MİT. Ahmet Duran Y. and Güler were charged with collecting information about dissidents opposing Erdoğan in Germany under the leadership of Gergerlioğlu. They face a prison sentence of up to five years, according to German law.

The second witness to testify on Thursday was Police Chief Martin Müller of the Mainz Criminal Bureau. He said he examined the iPhone seized from Gergerlioğlu and found more than 300 documents in the phone’s memory. Among them were passport photographs belonging to British, Syrian, Iranian and Kazakhstani citizens, a list of names from various groups, including al-Qaeda, documents of arms trades between Israel and İstanbul, as well as various official letters and notifications addressed to and from Turkish prosecutors’ offices, governors, and members of the police force and gendarmerie.

Source: ZAMAN

TURKEY Difficulties to get rid of Erdogan Erol Özkoray

September 17, 2015 By administrator

The legislative elections of 7 June confirmed the loss of the absolute majority of the Islamic AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but he prevented the formation of a coalition government, to provoke early elections scheduled for November 1 in order to remain permanently in power. Thus, violating the constitution he seized power. This is called political science a “coup d’Marital Status”. The regime that emerged from the military coup of September 12, 1980, also deserves the name “permanent coup d’State” (the Permanent Putsch) due to the omnipresence of the military in the political system on the National Council Security 1982- -an invention of the constitution with the civilian government. Regarding the political mores of the country, so there is continuity. But this time, the danger is politically fatal because Erdogan wants to establish a Sunni Islamic regime, ending a secular society by abolishing the secular regime. In the jargon, this is called the “New Turkey” which is nothing but a dictatorship green colors of Islam. The country thus incurs a serious danger.

All means are good to stay in office and carry out the Machiavellian design: create a civil war between Kurds and Turks, enter Syria to make war, rig elections, go to an emergency government plan to suspend the parliament. Byzantine mise-en-scene provides for permanent stay in power at any cost, regardless of the results of future elections. The unsaid is that it can not be any elections at all!

Thus, Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish party original HDP (Peoples Democratic Party), which became in the last election in a national party with 13%, or 6,000,000 votes, and thus preventing the project President accuses Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu as key officials who made the decision to start a civil war. After the elections, the Islamic power buried the peace talks with the PKK (Kurdish guerrillas), provoked the war against this organization and attacked the HDP to eliminate politically. The closure of this party is also in their agenda. Erdogan’s goal is to establish its anachronistic regime which is only a copy of the Muslim Brotherhood, without a Kurdish opposition or resistance; because the Kurds are the best organized political force of the country. In this context, the paramilitary SA (Sturmabteilung) to Islamic sauce took to the streets on 7 and 8 September to attack and burn 400 local HDP throughout Turkey by following the lynching of Kurds under the protection of the forces of order. It was Kristallnacht (Kristallnacht) of Turkey.

Repeat this civil war orchestrated by the state bodies has a short-term goal: to reduce the voice of HDP but also channel it towards the AKP nationalist voters who vote for the usual far-right party, the MHP. In the medium term, the planned chaos of power is to declare a state of emergency, to switch to a form of “special regime” based on Article 120 of the Constitution gives full powers to the President if country is in danger. This is the “legal” transition to the dictatorship of a single person. Erdogan dream therefore lead Turkey with this article, in a disguised form of fascism, a constitutional dictatorship.

But wait against the heart results in the elections on November 1st. If he gets a minimum of 400 seats (highly unlikely) of a total of 550, it will have a free hand to do a new constitution to move to a presidential system. If he does not get it will use Article 120 and lead the country with exceptional powers, which is the same thing. Thus, it will declare its de facto presidential regime, which will be an Islamic dictatorship. If he sees that he will lose the elections, the transition to Article 120 will take place before November 1 and cancel the elections claiming preserve the territorial integrity of the country. In the background, there is a great fear of being judged for its giant corruption but also for betraying the homeland.

In this specific case, new elections will change nothing in the current table. The people in front of a politico who has violated his oath to protect the secular republic in wanting to establish a state based on Sharia law. Thus, he defeated the “social contract” and he has lost all political legitimacy. This is grabbing the state in a coup.

In such context, there is a relative independence of the State which, through certain institutions can defend itself and protect its gains: as the Constitutional Court, for example. But all institutions are infiltrated by Erdogan, then by Islamists. The State is now merged with the Islamist party. That is why we call the current regime a “devious totalitarianism”. Media independence does not exist because of rampant censorship. So how thwart the evil policy of one person who is also a real danger to the security of the West? If Turkey finally switches to Islamism would be worse than the loss of Iran by the West in 1979 after the Islamic revolution.

First, voters will play through the electoral Thurs. But this is not enough. Second, then come other ways to preserve the freedoms, the republic and secularism will be the foundation for future democracy type of regime that the country has never known since its inception in 1923. So everything is legal to resist, to fight, if necessary to revolt against fascism of one person. The Turkish people have the right to develop their self-defense if attacked by hordes of the populace. The law also allows. The people is mature enough to defend themselves. He has already proved in 2013 during the revolt of Gezi, but in the last election.

Thursday, September 17, 2015,
Ara © armenews.co

Turkey: Journalist probed for allegedly insulting Turkish president Erdogan

September 17, 2015 By administrator

An investigation has been launched against journalist Hasan Cemal into his article titled “The Sultan in the Palace is culpable for the bloodshed,” Cemal has told daily Hürriyet.

Cemal was summoned to testify on Sept. 17 and the probe was launched purportedly on the charge of “insulting the Turkish president” in his article published on news website T24 on Aug. 12.

“We as journalists have been through hard times thus far with juntas, military coups, state of emergency, martial law. But, what hurts at this point is this was the first lawsuit filed against me since March 12,” Cemal said, recalling Turkey’s second military coup on March 12, 1971, which is known as the “coup by memorandum.”

Cemal was born in 1944 in Istanbul and is currently a columnist for T24.

He graduated from the Ankara University Political Sciences School in 1965 and started his career in journalism in weekly magazine Devrim in Ankara.

Among dailies he worked for were Yeni Ortam, Anka Ajansı and Günaydın.

In 1973, he started a column in daily Cumhuriyet and became its Ankara Bureau Chief in 1979, two years before he assumed the role of editor-in-chief of the popular daily.

Most recently, Cemal had worked at daily Milliyet for 15 years, but he was sorted out for his articles in 2013.

TURKEY Raid on the headquarters of a Turkish newspaper which mocked Erdogan

September 14, 2015 By administrator

Turkish police raided Monday in Istanbul headquarters of a newspaper and seized its latest issue that displayed a front-page photomontage of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taking a “selfie” in front of the coffin of a soldier killed by Kurdish rebels.

According to its editor Cevheri Güven, the police showed up once in the night outside the offices of Nokta magazine (“The Point” in Turkish).

“The police are on our doorstep. It is 1:30. I think the numbers Nokta will be seized, “wrote Mr. Güven on his Twitter account.

Having found the empty building, they are returned at 8:30 am and seized documents.

The daily Hürriyet published a copy of a decision of the Istanbul prosecutor ordering the search of the headquarters of Nokta, entering its last issue and blocking its Twitter account for “insulting the president” and “terrorist propaganda”. The first page of the magazine consists of a photomontage in which Erdogan takes pictures, smiling, with his cell phone before the coffin of a soldier covered with the Turkish flag.

It illustrates many detractors critical of the Head of State, who accuse him of exploiting the clashes between the army and rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to win the early parliamentary elections from November 1. Recep Erdogan has strongly rejected these allegations.

According Nokta, its one is inspired by a similar photomontage published in 2013 in the Guardian shows that the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair taking a “selfie” before the black smoke from an explosion during the war in Iraq .

Turkish Islamic-conservative government is regularly singled out by the NGO defending the freedom of the press, which blamed its pressure on the media. Many journalists are prosecuted in court for “insulting” the president and, since the beginning of the month, two British journalists and their Dutch colleagues who covered the fighting between the army and Kurdish rebels were expelled.

Turkey Anger mounts against gov’t as Turkey continues to bid farewell to fallen officers

September 10, 2015 By administrator

(Photo: Cihan)

As thousands of people continued on Thursday to bid farewell to police officers killed by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), funerals held in the hometowns of the martyrs were marked by widespread vocal condemnation of both the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and the PKK.

During the funeral held for Kadir Özkaya, one of the police officers killed in a PKK bomb attack on a minibus in the eastern province of Iğdır on Tuesday, hundreds chanted slogans against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son Bilal, saying, “Tayyip, enlist your son in the military” and “Tayyip, send your son to die.” Özkaya’s parents and relatives were inconsolable as they embraced his coffin.

Hasan Özkaya, the brother of the fallen officer, was in tears as he spoke to the press, accusing the AK Party of sharing the blame with the PKK for the deaths of members of the security forces, as the clashes erupted immediately after the AK Party lost its ability to form a single-party government in the June 7 general election.

There have been increasing numbers of people being killed in clashes across Turkey ever since the interim Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government lost its parliamentary majority on June 7 for the first time since coming to power in 2002. Since the June election, 120 members of the police force and the military have been killed in clashes with the PKK.

source: zaman

To Get Rid of ISIS, Turks Must First Get Rid of Erdogan

September 8, 2015 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Turkey has not only refused to join its NATO allies in fighting against ISIS, but has trained, armed and facilitated the infiltration of thousands of terrorists into Syria and Iraq.

The British Guardian reported that, in May when U.S. Special Forces raided the compound of ISIS leader Abu Sayyaf in Eastern Syria and killed him, documents seized during the raid revealed Ankara’s close collaboration with ISIS. Hundreds of articles have been published around the world describing various aspects of Turkish assistance to ISIS. Daniel Pipes in his Washington Times article, “Turkish Support for ISIS,” reported that “Turks offered far more than an easy border crossing: they provided the bulk of ISIS’ funds, logistics, training, and arms.” Pipes also revealed that wounded ISIS fighters are treated in Turkish hospitals, and Turkey has paid $800 million to ISIS for illicit oil shipments.

Vice President Joe Biden confirmed Turkey’s sinister role in helping Islamist terrorists at a Harvard University speech last October: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates “poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad — except that the people who were being supplied were all Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.” The Vice President also revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had told him privately: “You were right. We let too many people through.” Biden later apologized for his public remarks to soothe Erdogan’s wrath.

In an astounding revelation, Mitchell Prothero of McClatchyDC.com reported on August 24 that Turkish intelligence had alerted Islamist terrorists that a group of U.S.-trained fighters was about to cross from Turkey into Syria. Upon arrival, many of the 54 graduates of the $500 million U.S. training program were promptly intercepted and kidnapped by al-Qaida’s Nusra Front!

Last month, when Turkey finally agreed to join the war against terror and ‘allowed’ the United States to launch airstrikes on ISIS targets from Incirlik Air Base, U.S. officials’ initial delight turned into dismay when they realized that the Turkish military’s priority was attacking the Kurds in Iraq and Syria, not ISIS. By going after Kurdish militants, Turkey was in fact helping ISIS because the Kurds were the only reliable U.S. military partners on the ground.

Beyond wishing to undermine long-held Kurdish aspirations for an independent Kurdistan, by unleashing large scale bloody attacks against Kurds in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, Erdogan is hoping that on November 1 Turkish voters would help his party regain the parliamentary majority it lost in the June elections. Unfortunately for Erdogan, the attacks on Kurds have created a widespread backlash among many Turkish citizens who lost their loved ones serving in the military, simply to boost the President’s political rating!

In desperation, Erdogan may well resort to one more trick in the coming weeks. Seeing that bombing Kurds is not generating the expected public support in the upcoming elections, he could order massive attacks on Kurds throughout Eastern Turkey. He would then use the excuse of an all-out civil war to declare a state of emergency, suspend Parliament, and rule with the iron fist of a theocratic Ottoman Sultan!

The United States and its NATO allies have an obligation to do everything possible to stop the monster they have created before he destroys everything on his path. Erdogan is a serious menace to his own citizens — Turks, Kurds, and others — as well as a destabilizing force to the entire region! The vicious attacks on the Kurdish population in Eastern Turkey makes the best case why Kurds deserve independent statehood and can no longer tolerate the brutal Turkish regime!

The Obama administration should follow the wise counsel of Eric S. Edelman, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and under secretary of defense from 2005 to 2009. In a commentary published in The New York Times on August 27, Edelman suggests that the United States “restrict Turkey’s access to senior-level meetings; reduce intelligence cooperation; and withhold American support for Turkey in international financial institutions.” These steps and many others must be taken in the next few weeks before November’s parliamentary elections.

In an August 31 editorial, The New York Times Editorial Board described Erdogan’s political shenanigans as an attempt to “salvage his ambitions for continued authoritarian rule and greatly expanded powers.”

To bring the problem of terrorism in Syria and Iraq under control, restore stability in these countries, and stop the escalating bloodshed inside Turkey, the Turkish people must ensure that Erdogan’s party does not regain its lost parliamentary majority!