61–70 of 103 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't lump countries together.
Is there any reason to think that this Kılıçdaroğlu guy is immune to the environment and all the pressures that create people like Erdogan? There are a million other examples of what I described above. Maybe he'll be different but I don't think there's any reason to assume he's anything special.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hot/Unpopular Take: For the sake of developing Turkey, it might be best for them to adopt the South Korean model of the incoming President pardoning the outgoing president of wrongdoing and ongoing crimes. That is the only way to ensure peaceful transitions in countries where democratic norms are still being developed.
Ummm South Korea is actually infamous for throwing almost all ex-presidents to prison, even if they get pardoned eventually. The pardons are always done for "political reasons" and hugely unpopular. We want our ex-presidents to remain in prison, it seems. There are obviously pros and cons (every Korean will admit that some of these "investigations" are politically motivated hack job, they just disagree on which ones…
The pardons usually come towards the end of the 2nd president's term (good old election season), and after the whole semi-politically motivated litigation.
But Turkey is in the same position economically and socially as South Korea in the 1980s. If they don't want another lost decade, or the return of military rule/coups and violent transitions of power, it might be best to swallow this bitter pill instead of seeing dozens of people shot in street demonstrations or a Gwangju Uprising 2.0
I'm highly invested in Erdogan losing this election since I live in Sweden and this basically decides if we get to join the NATO and its nuclear umbrella or not. (Erdogan's opposition has made it clear that they want us in - awesome.) That said: I'm not sure there's much point in debating what Erdogan might do if he loses.
Really? Even when soldiers rose up and overthrew him, he still clung to power. If even a bloody coup couldn't do it, what chance does an election have?
Why is this news worthy? Shouldn’t the opposite be news worthy? if he promises he won’t transfer power peacefully? Or if he tries to not transfer power after the election?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one of the points that is a bit complex: AFAIK there is large bi-partisan opposition against Sweden's Nato entry in the Turkish public opinion (for a variety of right or wrong reasons), so the issue is not just with the AKP base. I think there was some news that Ünal Çeviköz, Kilicdaroglu's (opposition leader) foreign policy advisor, has sent signals that were optimistic. Additionally, it may be easier for US…
Sigh. I guess we'll have to build nukes (again, sort of). And a delivery mechanism (again, sort of).
It could be done in the same way that Taiwan, Japan, and SK have clandestine nuclear programs, but the easier thing to do might be to just deport people who fundraise for the PKK (who are pretty fucking terrible tbh - there's a reason they're still banned in most western countries).
It would also be a massive feather in the CHP's hat, neutralize a major reason why Turkey began buying weapons from Russia, and neutralize a major reason people have supported the AKP.
This whole PKK shitshow is Obama+Trump's fault btw - they both wanted a quick win against IS in Syria while also not using American troops. The only solution was the PKK's Syrian branch - the YPG. There was a whole US lead rebranding of the YPG in the 2014-2018 period specifically for this reason [0][1]
> Thomas said he made the Turkish concerns known to the YPG back in 2015.
“We literally played back to them: ‘You have got to change your brand. What do you want to call yourselves besides the YPG?’ With about a day’s notice they declared that they are the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
“I thought it was a stroke of brilliance to put democracy in there somewhere. But it gave them a little bit of credibility.” [0]
[0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-usa-ypg/u-...
[1] https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/10/09/t...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In case of high profile people it is often not the lack of evidence, it is the lack of will to prosecute them. Apart from some fines, has Trump faced any consequence, ever? There is enough evidence against him to fill a warehouse. I hope Erdogan gets voted out and faces consequences for the crap he pulled, I am skeptical though
The American legal system is slow. Most litigation against Trump only really started in 2017 or 2018. A couple were thrown out due to procedural issues (blame that slimeball Avennati), but others have gone through. Also, most litigation mentioned against Trump is in the Civil Court system, where has has faced penalties. Criminal litigation on the other hand takes A LOT of time, especially if you hire a firm with a st…
As for attorneys defending him, please take a look at people like Tacopina. Doesn't particularly inspire confidence.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In case of high profile people it is often not the lack of evidence, it is the lack of will to prosecute them. Apart from some fines, has Trump faced any consequence, ever? There is enough evidence against him to fill a warehouse. I hope Erdogan gets voted out and faces consequences for the crap he pulled, I am skeptical though
The US does seem particularly skittish about prosecuting naughty politicians, tho.
I'm highly invested in Erdogan losing this election since I live in Sweden and this basically decides if we get to join the NATO and its nuclear umbrella or not. (Erdogan's opposition has made it clear that they want us in - awesome.) That said: I'm not sure there's much point in debating what Erdogan might do if he loses.
This is one of the points that is a bit complex: AFAIK there is large bi-partisan opposition against Sweden's Nato entry in the Turkish public opinion (for a variety of right or wrong reasons), so the issue is not just with the AKP base. I think there was some news that Ünal Çeviköz, Kilicdaroglu's (opposition leader) foreign policy advisor, has sent signals that were optimistic. Additionally, it may be easier for US…
Turkey has been trying to get into the EU for decades. I've seen nothing that suggests that's because they want to move closer to European social, political and commercial customs. After all, they could do that without the EU, if that was what they wanted.
So I conclude that they just want budget handouts.
And I also conclude that their opposition to Sweden joining NATO is because it would humiliate Turkey if Sweden joins, while Turkey is still standing outside the EU, hoping.
FWIW, I don't think Turkey should be in NATO; and I don't think they should be in the EU. Not until they have some kind of reasonable governance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some interesting context here: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1657428707995181058 Turkey is presumably making a legal demand. So Twitter's choices are censor a handful of individuals in Turkey or have Turkey block Twitter for everybody. The thing that will be interesting is Twitter posting the demand from Turkey. If this is normalized, it would be another great step forward in transparency for Twitter. It'd be s…
They choose to do that a lot when it comes to foreign governments. North Korea could in theory send such "legal" demands if they allowed Twitter in the country. Actually a big reason for why Musk & co claimed they had to rescue Twitter was because the US government too made such demands to the previous owners and they censored American citizens under very questionable circumstances, including scientists. So at what p…
But in any case, this is nothing at all like what happened with the US. The US government did not make legal demands, as doing so which would have run into the First Amendment, but instead made 'suggestions' in back channels, which Twitter voluntarily chose to both abide and keep secret, even when they fully recognized it was being abused. There would have been no legal justification for doing anything to Twitter had these 'suggestions' been completely ignored. So Twitter's behavior was entirely on them.
As for "sides", after Twitter's decision 99.999% (or whatever absurd decimal it ends up as) of Turkey will retain full direct access to Twitter, instead of 0%. I doubt many of them will be thrilled about these events, and can now freely express that, Streisand effect and all. I don't think he's on the side of the people nor the government of Turkey, but rather he's simply doing what he can to enable the most people to be able to express themselves.