Human Rights Watch Warns of 'Authoritarian Drift' in Turkey

[DGuller]

What? Working with Iran would be unthinkable from the US perspective and the only reason for this is the fact that Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel (the West is perfectly capable of turning a blind eye to even greater human right abuses by the Saudis, so it is hardly that).

  Iran has worked directly against US (and other Western) interests in all manner of areas, mostly having nothing to do with Israel.

Cut him som slack. He is living in Eastern Europe. Most everything is analysed there on the basis of "how could the Jews be potentially involved?"

Tamas, just because you left your beet farm in Hungary doesn't mean you're not an Eastern European anymore.  You don't get to mock Eastern Europeans with an air of superiority.

[garbon]

What? Working with Iran would be unthinkable from the US perspective and the only reason for this is the fact that Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel (the West is perfectly capable of turning a blind eye to even greater human right abuses by the Saudis, so it is hardly that).

  Iran has worked directly against US (and other Western) interests in all manner of areas, mostly having nothing to do with Israel.

Cut him som slack. He is living in Eastern Europe. Most everything is analysed there on the basis of "how could the Jews be potentially involved?"

Tamas, just because you left your beet farm in Hungary doesn't mean you're not an Eastern European anymore.  You don't get to mock Eastern Europeans with an air of superiority.

Odd coming from you.

[The Minsky Moment]

Honestly, I thought we should have backed Assad to begin with. 

No that makes no sense.

[Syt]

Odd coming from you.

Well, he'll know what he's talking about.

[Tamas]

What? Working with Iran would be unthinkable from the US perspective and the only reason for this is the fact that Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel (the West is perfectly capable of turning a blind eye to even greater human right abuses by the Saudis, so it is hardly that).

  Iran has worked directly against US (and other Western) interests in all manner of areas, mostly having nothing to do with Israel.

Cut him som slack. He is living in Eastern Europe. Most everything is analysed there on the basis of "how could the Jews be potentially involved?"

Tamas, just because you left your beet farm in Hungary doesn't mean you're not an Eastern European anymore.  You don't get to mock Eastern Europeans with an air of superiority.

Odd coming from you.

No shit. Besides, i have been voicing the same condescending opinion on east euro politics waaaaay before I left the country. No wonder Dorsey didn't notice though. He only pays attention when I am attacking the latest Democrat memo

[DGuller]

What? Working with Iran would be unthinkable from the US perspective and the only reason for this is the fact that Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel (the West is perfectly capable of turning a blind eye to even greater human right abuses by the Saudis, so it is hardly that).

  Iran has worked directly against US (and other Western) interests in all manner of areas, mostly having nothing to do with Israel.

Cut him som slack. He is living in Eastern Europe. Most everything is analysed there on the basis of "how could the Jews be potentially involved?"

Tamas, just because you left your beet farm in Hungary doesn't mean you're not an Eastern European anymore.  You don't get to mock Eastern Europeans with an air of superiority.

Odd coming from you.

Oh. 

[DGuller]

No shit. Besides, i have been voicing the same condescending opinion on east euro politics waaaaay before I left the country. No wonder Dorsey didn't notice though. He only pays attention when I am attacking the latest Democrat memo

Oh, the irony.  The spokesman for Austrian economics on Languish is implying that I'm ideologically rigid.

[derspiess]

You're more partisan than ideological, though.

[The Brain]

The claim that democracy is a uniquely western concept is not supported by studies as there are well-working democracies in all parts of the world, except the Middle East, Central Asia and Central Africa. Here is the Economist's democracy index (from 2012, so some may be outdated e.g. Thailand) for example:

Text and map don't match.

[mongers]

We seem to have a lot of threads about Turkey and several major Erdogan discussions in other threads also, but rather than start yet another one, I thought this old thread was the best match to today's news.

Erdogan wastes no time in flexing his newly enhanced democratic credentials:

Turkey detains supporters of Erdogan rival Gulen in raids

Turkish police have arrested 44 people suspected of having links to an exiled Islamic cleric accused of seeking to overthrow the government.

Top bureaucrats and police officers were among those held in a crackdown on supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the state-run Anadolu agency said.

Mr Gulen is a rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose AK party regained its majority in Sunday's election.

European observers said violence and media restrictions marred the polls.

On Tuesday, left-wing magazine Nokta said two of its editors had been charged with plotting a coup in the government's latest move against opposition media outlets.

Cevheri Guven and Murat Capan were arrested over a magazine cover criticising the election results that read: "The start of civil war in Turkey."

An Istanbul court later ordered that the magazine's latest edition be withdrawn from the shelves, accusing it of inciting the public to commit a crime.
....

Full article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34709324

[Martinus]

The claim that democracy is a uniquely western concept is not supported by studies as there are well-working democracies in all parts of the world, except the Middle East, Central Asia and Central Africa. Here is the Economist's democracy index (from 2012, so some may be outdated e.g. Thailand) for example:

Text and map don't match.

Yeah, the democratic areas are the ones inhabited, colonised or closely subjugated (like India) by Westerners.

[Monoriu]

Yeah, the democratic areas are the ones inhabited, colonised or closely subjugated (like India) by Westerners.

That description doesn't fit S. Korea or Taiwan, as both were Japanese colonies.  On the other hand, many countries that were once western colonies aren't democracies now, see countries in the middle east, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cuba etc. 

[Hamilcar]

All you representative democracies are just enjoying the kabuki theater. Only in a direct democracy do people have a real say in their governance. Switzerland should have its own shade on that Economist map. May I suggest floating ball of light blue?

[Jaron]

The Japs have a serious Western fetish though. Prior to that they had an emperor/military dictatorships.

[viper37]

I seem to recall people thinking Turkey might be ready to join the EU soonish.

Before Erdogan.  And these people were ridiculed because Turkey wasn't a real democracy since the army had too much power in enforcing the non religious constitution...