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Originally Posted by corporatejay
Right, but isn't he "our" monster?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Very true. The West made a huge mistake once again in backing another dictator.
Turkey is going from a stabilizing force to a risk area because once again when the chips are down the West went with the dictator instead of supporting democracy when it needed support.
And people still wonder why not everybody sees West is as the good guys.
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What do you mean? Erdogan has strong grass-roots support in Turkey. He won his first election fairly. The West did nothing to put him in power or sustain him. He's not the leader Western governments would pick for Turkey, but he's the one the Turkish people have chosen
Are you really suggesting the West should have backed a military coup against the democratically government of a NATO ally? The pro-Western anti-Erdogan officers did not have popular support.
Just because he's authoritarian doesn't mean he's unpopular. It's hard for many of us in the West to get our heads around, but in many cases authoritarian leaders who quash dissent do so with broad popular support. Erdogan is far and away the most popular leader in Turkey. The pro-Western, secular elements in the country hate and fear him, but they're a minority in the country, and becoming a smaller minority every day as liberals flood out of the country to immigrate to the West.
Turkey is analogous to the 'two Americas' we talk about when we refer to liberal, coastal urban types vs the conservatives of fly-over country. Except in Turkey, the liberal coastal types only make up about one-quarter of the country, and the conservatives of fly-over country are far, far more conservative.
The Turkish people have chosen a conservative, authoritarian leader who governs in the interests of the conservative religious majority. It sucks. But it's not the result of Western meddling.