That's the guy some want in the EU

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

A Turkish MP from the country's Republican party, named Eren Erdem, was sentenced to jail for "insulting" Recep Erdogan. What's more, he did that a long time ago, when the latter wasn't even president yet. Meanwhile, the crackdown on the Kurdish minority continues, Erdogan has now equated them to the Islamic State. See for yourselves:

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As for Erdem, he did his "crime" in 2012, and the court imposed a penalty fee on him for that. The decision was supposed to take effect in 2014, but now the fee has been replaced with a year in jail and 700 hours of public labor.

The notification for this change was sent to an old address, so the MP never learned he had been sentenced and barred from leaving the country. But this year the warrant for his immediate arrest was finally issued, although his MP immunity was an obstacle. Now that the obstacle has been removed, after Erdogan's ruling party (Erdogan himself is supposed to be impartial as per the Constitution) decided to remove the immunity from a huge number of politicians, so they could be prosecuted on similar charges (insulting Erdogan).

So, on July 4, Erdem was removed in a spectacular fashion from a Berlin-bound plane he was about to board as he was preparing to visit his relatives in Germany for the Ramadan. A total of 152 acting MPs have been charged for nearly 800 "crimes against the president, the state, and the nation". All in all, a massive purge is currently underway. Among the prosecuted, 29 MPs from the ruling party, 57 from the main opposition party (including its chairman), 55 from the Kurdish party (its leader included), plus many more.

All the while, some people still bemoaning that Europe is being too hypocritical for expecting that Turkey should adhere to some "arbitrary" democratic criteria, which Europe itself occasionally violates. I'd very much like to hear a few examples of a similar purge in any EU country so we could have a precedent to lean upon in entertaining that sort of argument.

Comments

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Erdogan is getting back to friendly terms with Putin (as if nothing had happened between them). Yet another reason that the EU would backpedal on their initial intention to bend over backwards in front of Turkish blackmail. The Euros may be starting to realize that the downsides of accelerating Turkey's entry would by far outweigh the imaginary upside of entirely depending on the good will of a totally unreliable "partner" like Turkey for holding back the refugee wave. What's more, now that the European border control system is about to be enhanced and will be able to adequately respond to the refugee pressure, Europe may even stop needing Turkey's assistance that badly.

So we end up with another standoff between two or more blocs. Cold War Two ensue.

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

And of course, tiny countries like mine are forever caught in the middle of it all, as usual.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Is this Erdogan guy sure he's not related to the Kims of North Korea? He sure does seem like one of them.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Trump admires him, too.