Photo: By © Raimond Spekking
When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003 many observers saw this as a positive move despite his Justice & Development Party being an Islamist formation. It was hoped that this would begining the process of merging conservative Islam with the modern notion of democracy.
And after all Turkey was foremost founded as a secular state by it's found Kemal Ataturk after the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of the first world war.
Today no one is under any illusions about the man now president of Turkey, or his movement. Political opponents are imprisoned or exiled, Journalists are rounded up and the press censored and minorities under armed siege. The country is slipping backwards towards the new fascism of Islamism.
A failed coup bolstered Erdogan's power base and his conservative movement has the upper hand across the country. Laughably he seeks more power in a referendum to be "more like the US President" with strengthened political powers.
The difference between even a madman like Donald Trump and Erdogan is clear. The USA has not just a free press but an independent judiciary all the "checks & balances" that are required to safeguard the country's fundamental freedoms.
Not so in Turkey. The Judiciary, the civil service and even the armed forces have been purged of thousands upon thousands of potential opponents to Erdogan.
Erdogan is a dictator, and a dangerous one.
Having had rows with both Austria and Germany in his attempt to campaign in their countries now violence has erupted on the streets of Holland as a thousand of his thugs rampage around the streets. Such behaviour smacks of Hitlerism, a man whom Erdogan admires.
Erdogan is a threat to peace in the Middle east and Europe.
Turkey now joins Iran and North Korea as a pariah nation whom cannot be trusted. However there is still time, there is still hope that the remaining democratic and secular forces in Turkey can rid their country of this dictator.
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