Updated September17, 2016.

See

TIM ARANGO, CEYLAN YEGINSU and SAFAK TIMURSEPT,”Turks See Purge as Witch Hunt of ‘Medieval’ Darkness,” New York Times, September 16, 2016.

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Originally published July 27, 2016

See Sami Naïr (Análisis), “Golpe dentro del golpe; Las dos corrientes dirigentes de Turquía, la del presidente Erdogan y la de Gülen son, ahora, mucho más importante que la oposición laica,”El País, 26 de Julio 2016 (11:10 EDT).

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is conducting an “auto” coup d’etat in Turkey, shutting down newspaperse and “cleaning” the armed forces and government agencis of those who oppose him, or might oppose him, all in violation of due process and the rule of law.

For some time he has exercised dictatorial and extra-constitutional power in Turkey.

Europe has been an accomplice, entering into a deal with the new “strongman” of the region to halt the flow of refugees to EU countries, precisely as he was tearing up the roots of Turkish democracy.  During the recent coup attemp, Barack Obama spoke out forcefully in defense of Erdogan and Turkish democracy, precisely when Erdogan was ripping Turkish democracy asunder. The least Obama might have done was to remain silent.

Now the dictator has his dictatorial powers and is using them to smash his opponents. He is shameless, as are the EU and the United States in failing to speak out loudly against his trampling on democratic freedoms and internationally-protected human rights.

It is a shameful spectacle, of the kind that is becoming all too common in a rudderless world where international law, constitutional government, and international human rights appear to have no forceful defenders among the leaders of the principal democracies of the world.

Without a legal or moral framework to use as a compass, leaders stumble from one ad hoc transactional “solution” to another, with neither strategy nor principle to guide their way.

The Trenchant Observer