1. The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has taken a dangerous pivot toward an authoritarian, religious nationalist government; he has single-handily purged all opposition since consolidating power during the Gezi Park protests of 2013. The brutal crackdown on this peaceful and organized protest included an armored raid on the citizens occupying the last green space of its major city, Istanbul, before the government was to bulldoze it and build a military barracks there.
Along with that heavy-handed assault, which resulted in at least 20 fatalities, came widespread jailing and intimidation of journalists and government figures, causing many fatalities. Today, Turkey holds the world record for most journalists under arrest. Erdogan has jailed 200 to date, with the vast majority waiting years and months before ever seeing a judge. This marks a dramatic shift from an understood vision of joining the European Union by embracing liberal democratic principals toward an authoritarian, religious nationalist government, shifting them from an ally to an enemy.
2. Since the Gezi Park ordeal in Turkey in the summer months of 2013, Erdogan has steamrolled his way down a path of authoritarian religious nationalism, while silencing his critics by any means necessary domestically and abroad. Ethnic Kurds make up 15 million of Turkey’s population, but they have increasingly been the target of brutal oppression and lethal attacks by state institutions of the Erdogan government. Some blame him for “commissioning” the foreign executions of three Kurdish female activists in 2013 at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris, France near the site of the Bataclan Attacks in 2015. Two of the women were shot three times in the head, and the third victim was shot four times in the head.
The suspect, Omer Guney, 34, died from brain cancer last December before his trial could begin in France. Guney was working as a driver for about two years for one of the victims, Sakine Cansiz. Allegations that Guney was working for Turkish intelligence were everywhere internationally, except the halls of power of the government in Ankara, the Turkish capital.
The Kurdish-Turkish conflict that began in the 1970s has flared up notably since 2013 and has spilled over into bombing attacks. On Aug. 22, 2016, a suicide bomber killed over 50 Kurds at a wedding party; half were reported to be children by CNN.
3. In July 2016, members of the Turkish military carried out a roughly day-long coup. It failed and Erdogan blamed it on one man almost immediately after it ended, Fethullah Gülen.
Today, Gülen lives an austere, secluded life in self-imposed exile from Erdogan’s government in northeastern Pennsylvania and has been in the country since 1999. He responded immediately after his president accused him, vigorously denying any and all involvement in the attempted coup. However, the Turkish government has officially requested Gülen’s extradition last year, which President Barack Obama refused to grant, sparing Gülen’s life.
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, also formerly a foreign agent of Turkey, secretly lobbied on behalf of Erdogan and even went so far as to write an Op-Ed in The Hill arguing for Gülen’s immediate extradition back to Turkey where he would face certain death. This was before Flynn was exposed and fired by President Donald Trump.
According to an article published by The Economist on May 18, 2013, “Mr Gülen is the spiritual leader of a global network, the Hizmet (meaning service), that includes media outlets, schools and charities. These have spread his pacifist, modern-minded Islam, often praised as a contrast to more extreme Salafism.”
4. An unprecedented diplomatic dispute concerning a national referendum this coming April, which would change the government in Turkey from a parliamentary to an executive system, would give Erdogan more unprecedented power domestically. Erdogan has instructed his religious nationalist party, Justice and Development Party (AKP), minions and lemmings into the streets of liberal and free Europe and called the leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and all of Europe “Nazis.”
This is something that has not been done between European leaders since World War II. This began in response to the Netherlands refusing entry to the foreign minister and Turkey’s family minister, the Netherlands and later Germany, which refused the AKP’s request to hold dozens of religious nationalist party indoctrination rallies. Hundreds waving Turkish flags refused to disperse until the Dutch police used water cannons. The Turkish government promised to respond in the “harshest ways” to Dutch authorities.
5. Erdogan threatens the safety of all European citizens. In a provocative statement made Wednesday, March 24, Erdogan actually threatened the physical safety of every European citizen.
In response to this abnormal diplomatic dispute, the European Union summoned its Turkish member to explain his words. This was published in the Washington Post on March 23: “Erdogan warned Wednesday that Europeans would not be able to walk the streets safely if European nations persist in what he called arrogant conduct.”
The remarks were his latest amid tensions over Dutch and German restrictions on Turkish ministers seeking to hold campaign meetings with Turkish citizens.
EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the foreign affairs office “actually asked the Turkish permanent delegate to the EU to come,” adding, “We would like to receive an explanation regarding the comment by President Erdogan concerning the safety of the Europeans on the streets in the world.”
Erdogan has morphed the government of Turkey from an ally to an enemy of Europe and the United States. This will remain the case as long as he retains power with the AKP.