German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. © Tobias Schwarz / Reuters
Douglas Murray, The Spectator: How Recep Erdogan became the most powerful man in Europe
Turkey’s thuggish president has European leaders exactly where he wants them.
Update: Since this article was published Ahmet Davutoglu has resigned as Turkey’s Prime Minister. Reports suggest this comes as a result of a rift with President Erdogan caused by the increasingly ‘Presidential’ nature of Turkey’s politics.
Is Turkey part of Europe? For most of our civilisation’s history, to have even asked such a question would have been to invite derision. The Ottomans were kept out of Europe not by some early-onset prejudice, but by the armies of Europe having to beat back their repeated invasions. The question became slightly more plausible a century ago with the rise of Ataturk and the modern Turkish state (one of the only successful efforts to reconcile the Islamic religion with state power). For a brief period around the turn of the millennium, some serious people (including the British government) supported Turkey joining the EU.
But today, the question has become academic — first because Turkey’s liberal trajectory long ago halted and began rolling backwards. And secondly because the country is now coming into Europe anyway. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, has persuaded the EU to grant visa-free travel to his 75 million countrymen inside Europe’s passport-free Schengen area. In so doing, he has made more progress than any of his predecessors. Using a combination of intimidation, threats and blackmail, he has succeeded in opening wide the doors of Europe.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: When Turkey threatened to escalate the conflict against Russia in Syria and to ask NATO for help .... I was relieved to see Europe's leaders get together and bluntly tell Erdogan that if he should follow this destructive course he was on his own. That was a few months .... but today .... a different story. European - Turkish relations is the poster child (for me at least) on how weak and dysfunctional Europe has become. In the past .... Europe would never have bothered to listen to someone like Erdogan .... they would have ignored him, and they would then impose a political and economic cost on the Turkish government. Today .... utter and complete appeasement .... and this is coming from a people (i.e. the British, Germans, etc.) who know what appeasement can bring about.
Update: Erdogan continues to lecture the West .... Erdogan Blasts West for Leaving Turkey to Fight IS Alone (VOA).