Free Republic

This summer's protests (centered around Gezi Park but with strong reach across the country) were a reaction to the authoritarian nature of [Erdogan]. In response Erdogan played the cards that had won him previous support. The protests were demonized [and he] called for ordinary people to rise up against these undemocratic forces . . . This shocked the somewhat naive international community and lost him support [in Turkey]. . . it may now [help] cause Erdogan's downfall.

For the second time in 4 months, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been closely tied to a Saudi national who has been designated by the US Treasury Department as a foreign terrorist. The Saudi terrorist is a man named Yasin al-Qadi.

PROTESTERS stormed the streets of Turkey’s biggest cities yesterday as a deepening corruption scandal threatened to bring down the government and sparked fears of a military coup. Riot police fought back with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets in Istanbul’s Taksim Square six months after violent scenes in the city over Turkey’s shift away from its leanings to western democracy. To cries of “catch the thief”, a slur aimed at prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, protesters threw rocks and firecrackers as riot squads attempted to block demonstrators from taking over the square. At least 70 were arrested.

One of Turkey’s largest-ever corruption investigations is underway. A public bank CEO, an Iranian businessman and the sons of the freshly resigned interior and economy ministers are among the 24 suspects arrested so far, pending trial. The Iranian businessman allegedly circumvented sanctions against Iran and sent millions of dollars to the country via Halkbank by bribing the CEO as well as the ministers through their sons. /// In a series of daily speeches after the operation began, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted the probe and the investigators. He branded the probe a “dirty operation” and the policemen in charge...

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Minister Muammer Güler and Environment and Urbanization Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar announced their resignations today. The first announcement came hours after Çağlayan returned from a trip to Pakistan, where he accompanied Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “It is clear that the operation that was launched on Dec. 17 is a dirty [game] against our government, our party and our country,” Çağlayan said in a written statement. “I have left my duty as the economy minster to spoil this ugly game in which my son and my close aides were implicated and to allow the facts...

Israel’s intelligence community has determined that Turkey has replaced Iran as the leading financial backer of Hamas since 2012, reports the World Tribune, citing unspecified “israeli sources.” The sources said the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has overseen the transfer of up to $250 million a year to Hamas, and particularly to its governing apparatus in Gaza. “The money is channeled mostly through private sources, but with full coordination with Erdogan and his aides,” a source said. Turkey has coordinated the cash transfers with Qatar, which has been hosting the Hamas leadership since its expulsion from Syria in...

There's a very big story developing in Turkey that all foreign policy mavens should be watching closely. Exactly how big remains to be seen, but the stakes are huge. At issue: Will the decade-long domination of Turkish politics by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) continue? Or is the Erdogan era about to come crashing down, fatally weakened by scandal, infighting, and authoritarian overreach? Early Tuesday morning, police in Istanbul and Ankara carried out a wave of stunning arrests that included powerful businessmen, the sons of three cabinet ministers, and the head of...

AFTER 40 years of hesitation and seven hard years of reform and lobbying, Turkey is basking today in the most qualified of invitations to begin the process of joining Europe - a continent whose eastern half the Ottoman empire controlled for centuries. A European Commission report released yesterday, which paves the way for a deciding vote by the 25-member European Union at its December summit, was heavily qualified, and Turkish leaders were muted in their expressions of delight at their initial success. Presenting the decision to the European parliament last night, commission president Romano Prodi said it was a "qualified...

For decades his picture dominated Turkey, piercing blue eyes staring from hoardings, keeping watch over city streets and army barracks. Schoolyards echoed every morning to his oath: "Happy is he who can say 'I am a Turk!'" Now that oath rings out no more and the image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the secular republic, seems for some to be retreating into the shadows, victim of a new ruling class they suspect of cherishing a new more 'Islamic' Turkey. Turkey's "Kemalists" flinch at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan advising women on the number of children they should have, fostering restrictions...

“These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.” ~ Erdogan, PM of Turkey Turkey took another step backwards this week … lurching toward Sharia … when 4 female MPs marked the end of a ban enforced since the early days of the Turkish Republic. The female MPs were wearing headscarves, as they walked into Turkey’s parliament in Ankara on Oct. 31st, designating the end of a prohibition vigorously imposed since the dawn of a secular Turkey. On its face, this step...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rebuffed intensified international criticism over Turkey’s choice to agree a missile defense deal with China, a day after NATO declared that it wanted a say in the decision-making process. “Nobody has the right to overshadow our understanding of independence,” Erdoğan said Oct. 22 before departing for Kosovo. Recalling NATO’s discontentment over Turkey’s decision to accept a Chinese bid to build its first long-range anti-missile system, Erdoğan noted that many NATO members have Russian weapons in their inventory. The prime minister’s statement came a day after NATO Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s remarks expressed the hope that...

Early last year, the Erdogan government blew the cover of up to 10 Israel agents in Iran who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers. This story was published in The Washington Post, by David Ignatius, who has excellent connections in the US capital, Thursday, Oct. 17 – the day after a two-day conference in Geneva between six world powers with Iran on its nuclear program. A chorus of Western powers led by the US hailed the event as “substantive” and “forward-looking.” But on the quiet, the WP story was directed against Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu...

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan voiced support for U.S. President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, known as “Obamacare,” while simultaneously underlining his government has been acting with an understanding based on prioritizing the individual rather than the state. Obama has taken a step to reform the health service sector, but some circles have been standing in his way, said Erdoğan, who at the time described the separation of powers and “bureaucratic oligarchy” as the government’s main obstacle, saying it was preventing them from introducing “further services.” “And here, actually, there is a need to support Mr. Obama, why isn’t this...

Turkey says Syrian forces have shot down one of its air force jets. After a two-hour security meeting, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said the warplane that disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea Friday was shot down by Syria. The statement said the two pilots remain missing. The prime minister's office said Turkey will decide on how to respond to the incident but did not elaborate. Turkey has joined nations such as the U.S. in saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country. Meanwhile, U.N. Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan told reporters...

Limited strikes in Syria are not enough, declares Turkey's Prime Minister as the U.S. mulls action in Syria. The goal of any military intervention in Syria should be to topple Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Erdogan said that the limited strikes which the United States is reportedly planning against Syria would not be enough and pushed for a broader military offensive. "A limited operation cannot be satisfactory for us," he was quoted as saying by the NTV news channel. "An intervention akin to that decided for Kosovo must be launched. An operation of...

In a landmark trial, scores of people —including Turkey's former military chief, politicians and journalists — were convicted on Monday of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government soon after it came to power in 2002. Retired Gen. Ilker Basbug was the most prominent defendant among some 250 people facing verdicts after a five-year trial that has become a central drama in tensions between the country's secular elite and Erdogan's Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party. The trial has sparked protests, and on Monday police blocked hundreds of demonstrators from reaching the High Criminal Court in Silivri, 40 kilometers...

Turkey's former armed forces chief has been jailed for life for plotting to overthrow the government, after five years of trials involving officers, lawyers, writers and journalists. Gen Ilker Basbug was among dozens of people convicted of involvement in the so-called Ergenekon plot. Critics of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have accused him of staging show trials to eliminate his enemies. His supporters say the trials have pushed the military out of politics. Verdicts are being read out one by one at a specially constructed courtroom in Istanbul. Twenty-one people have been acquitted and some 40 convicted so far, including...

Hundreds of people from across North America are expected to flood Saylorsburg on Saturday to protest a controversial Turkish figure, Fethullah Gülen, who has lived in the area for more than a decade. … Gülen is a polarizing figure and Turkish cleric whose vision of Islam embraces science, education and interfaith dialogue. Millions support him, but his critics in Turkey’s secular establishment believe he is a dangerous man with a secret agenda. The protest comes on the heels of weeks of conflict on the streets of several Turkish cities against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who the couple claims is...

ISTANBUL — Unlike its key Arab allies, Turkey has condemned the overthrow of the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Analysts warn that the fall of Morsi has dealt a major blow to Turkey's ambition of extending its influence across the Middle East. Turkey's prime minister on Friday condemned the military intervention that toppled Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi as an enemy of democracy, and criticized the West for failing to brand the ouster a coup. Referring to his country's history of coups, Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that such military uprisings come at a heavy price. "Coups are evil. Coups target people,...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab states welcomed Egypt's interim leader on Thursday, hopeful his appointment would stem the rise of Islamists in the Middle East, but the military overthrow of an elected president drew a guarded response from Iran and condemnation from Turkey. The United States expressed concern at the ouster of Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday and called for a swift return to democracy, as did the European Union. But they stopped short of calling it a coup, which might have led to sanctions. The 54-nation African Union was likely to suspend Egypt for allowing "unconstitutional change", a senior AU...