Enough! America Must Distance Itself from Its Rogue Turkish Ally

< p > The recent abortive military coup in Turkey has led not to a restoration of democracy and the rule of law in that country, but to an acceleration of already worrisome trends toward a dictatorship with Islamist overtones.   When the would-be junta made its play for power, the Obama administration quickly expressed support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s beleaguered government, as did most of Turkey’s NATO < a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/17/world-leaders-express-support-for-turkey-after-attempted-coup" > partners < /a > .   When the coup attempt collapsed, leaders of those governments breathed a sigh of relief that the Alliance did not have to confront the embarrassment (or worse) of a member state governed by a military dictatorship. < /p > < p > That sense of relief was short lived.   In a matter of days, Erdogan purged not only hundreds of high-ranking military officers, (a step for which there was at least reasonable justification), he went after other institutions that had long impeded his attempts at increasingly autocratic rule.  Nearly 3,000 < a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-coup-latest-news-erdogan-istanbul-judges-removed-from-duty-failed-government-overthrow-a7140661.html" > judges < /a > were removed and arrested.   He even fired 21,000 teachers from the country’s < a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-teachers-idUSKCN0ZZ22F?il=0" > school < /a > system.   The extent and ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs