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NBA Player Enes Kanter Says Opposition to Erdogan Led to Detainment in Romania New York Times You guys know him by, you know, he has attacked the people in Washington, Kanter said in reference to a recent episode involving Mr. Erdogan's bodyguards and protesters in Washington. He is a bad, bad man; he is a dictator and he is the Hitler of ... NBA player Enes Kanter detained for criticizing Turkish president ErdoganWashington Examiner Enes Kanter Held in Romania: Turkish NBA Star Says Anti-Erdogan Views Got Passport RevokedNewsweek NBA player claims passport revoked for criticizing Turkish presidentThe Hill Sports Illustrated -The Big Lead all 49 news articles »

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NBA Player Enes Kanter Says Opposition to Erdogan Led to Detainment in Romania - New York Times

President Donald Trump and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to discuss U.S.Turkish trade relations, the fight against terrorism, and more. But one topic that seems to have been ignored was Turkeys democratic-turned-autocratic regime, which is at odds with a core NATO principle: that member states will promote democratic values.

Erdogan is intolerant of any opposition, especially when it comes from those in the media. As of December 2016, 81 journalists, more than in any other country in the world, were in Turkish prisons.

The U.S. and its NATO allies must lead Turkey back on to the path toward democracy, not autocracy. Turkey officially joined NATO in 1952 after establishing a multiparty election system in 1950. Nearly 70 years later, Turkeys NATO allies must continue to hold all members to high standards, ensuring that they maintain democratic norms.

If the U.S. and NATO remain silent on Erdogans violations of human rights, the number of Turkish citizens being persecuted will likely increase, especially now that Erdogan has the authority to control all three branches of government. The Turkish people in April passed a referendum granting him broad presidential power, but there is reason to believe that it was not a fair and free election.

On Tuesday, the Bipartisan Policy Center said that the U.S. should call for a reputable and impartial international review of the referendum, and continue to treat the results as illegitimate until such a point as Turkey has a free press and independent judiciary capable of investigating all evidence of fraud. The BPC document also called on the U.S. to demand that Turkish officials release the journalists who are imprisoned because of their opposition to the president. The key for American policymakers, it said, is to remain critical of Erdogans intensified efforts to crack down on his opponents through increasingly draconian means.

Thus far, however, President Trump has done the opposite: He congratulated Erdogan for his referendum victory and pursued a stronger alliance with Turkey in the fight against terrorism. Advocates of a TrumpErdogan alliance argue that Trumps actions are appropriate: A U.S.Turkish alliance in the fight against terrorism is necessary, and publicly opposing Erdogans regime would undermine counterterrorism efforts.

But Blaise Misztal, the director of the BPCs national-security program, tells National Review that Turkish cooperation with the U.S. on counterterrorism is mythical at this point. Turkey turned a blind eye to ISISs use of its territory until 2015, Misztal explains, and it has bombed the Syrian Kurds, a U.S. ally on the ground.

The U.S. and NATO ought to call Erdogan out on his excesses, Misztal says. More than anything, what Erdogan craves is the approval of world leaders....He wants to be seen as a player on the world stage. If Turkeys NATO allies ignore Erdogans human-rights violations, the nation will almost certainly see the demise of its remaining democratic norms.

Even faced with the possibility of losing their democracy, Erdogans supporters appear to have remained loyal over the past several elections (if we assume that the result of Aprils referendum on executive power was anaccurate reflection of public opinion). In the June 2015 parliamentary election, Erdogans party earned only 40.87 percent of the national vote but, according to the BPC, the data on Turkish elections suggest[s] that the results of June 2015 were an anomaly and that concerns over Erdogans authoritarianism, as well as the risks it brings to Turkeys stability and economic prosperity, have had little impact on voters. It seems that many of Erdogans devout supporters are concerned more with religious and cultural issues than with human rights and democracy.

If members of NATO dont begin expressing their disapproval of Erdogans regime, they will soon have in their alliance a country that explicitly defies the values NATO cherishes. Though he entered office with the promise of liberalization, EU membership, and economic growth, the BPC report stated, Erdogan now represents authoritarianism, abandonment of the West, and civil conflict.

Austin Yack is a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at the National Review Institute.

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Stand Up to Erdogan's Assault on Democracy - National Review

Middle East Eye

ANALYSIS: Erdogan reigns supreme, wearing a crown of thorns Middle East Eye ISTANBUL, Turkey - The Turkish president's anointment as the ruling party's leader on Sunday could be a poisoned chalice - no longer shall Recep Tayyip Erdogan be able to scapegoat the system or the failure of others during a time of internal party ...

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ANALYSIS: Erdogan reigns supreme, wearing a crown of thorns - Middle East Eye

Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is seen watching his security officials beat protesters outside the countrys embassy in Washington in newly released video footage.

The bloodyclash, which sent nine people to a hospital, took place Tuesday night just hours after Erdogan met with President Trump.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House with President Trump May 16, 2017 (White House photo)

CNN reported the video shows Erdogan standing near his car as the fighting broke out then turning his back and walking into the Turkish embassy.

Photos and videos of the scene on Embassy Row during rush hour showed men in dark suits punching and kicking protesters, including some who were lying on the ground. Two men were seen bleeding from the head.

The State Department, which is investigating the incident, summoned Turkeys ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kl, to the State Department, a senior State Department official told CNN.

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The conduct of Turkish security personnel earlier this week is deeply disturbing, the official said. The State Department has raised its concerns about these events at the highest levels and a thorough investigation that will allow us to hold the responsible individuals accountable is of the utmost importance to us.

Members of Erdogans security team also clashed with demonstrators last year outside the Brookings Institution in Washington, where Erdogan was giving a speech.

Brookings issued a statement at the time saying the security team behaved unacceptably they roughed up protesters outside the building and tried to drag away undesired journalists, an approach typical of the Russians or Chinese.

As WND reported, many geopolitical analysts are concerned the NATO nation, once regarded as a potential member of the European Union, is being systematically transformed into an anti-Western power. Fifteen years into his rule, Erdogan is abandoning the secular tradition of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatrk, in favor of Islamic nationalism.

Last month, Erdogan declared victory in a referendum to grant him sweeping powers in a vote opponents charged was marred by irregularities.

The measure, with 51.5 percent of the vote, replaced Turkeys parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolished the office of prime minister.

A week before his visit to the U.S., Erdogan urged Muslims to swarmthe Temple Mount to act as a counter to the insult of occupied Jerusalem.

He called Israel a racist and discriminatory state that is reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa.

Erdogan also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to work on unifying efforts to protect Jerusalem against attempts of Judaization, the independent Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

In December, as WND reported, hacked emails released by WikiLeaks showed Erdogans son-in-law is tied to the company accused of importing oil from ISIS. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov previously told journalists in Moscow that Erdogan and his family were involved in ISIS illegal oil trade and personally benefiting from it.

Turkey also has been accused of training ISIS fighters and of providing direct support to ISIS.

Strong relationship

At the White House Tuesday, Trump and Erdogan described the relationship between the two countries as strong but avoided the differences over strategies for confronting ISIS in northern Syria.

Pastor Andrew Brunson

Last week, the Trump administration decided to supply heavy weapons to Syrian Kurdish rebel militias, the YPG, who are part of the U.S.-backed alliance preparing march on the ISIS de-facto capital, Raqqa, later this year. Turkey is in an ongoing battle with Kurdish separatists in its southeast.

The Turkish embassy claimsthe protesters at the embassy Tuesday were affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the leading Kurdish separatist group, which has been banned in Turkey.

The case of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been imprisoned in Turkey without formal charges since October, was brought up three times during Trumps meeting with Erdogan, twice by Trump and once by Vice President Mike Pence, CBN reported.

A former member of Turkeys Parliament who has advocated for Brunsons release, Aykan Erdemir, told CBN that Brunson, improbably accused of membership in an armed terrorist organization, is now a pawn, kind of a trump card in Erdogans hand.

Theres absolutely no rule of law, no due process in that case, its a completely bogus case. Anyone who has looked at the case knows that these are trumped up charges, he said.

Turkish President Erdogan is seen surveying the violence before entering the Turkish ambassadors residence (Voice of America Turkish)

Turkey claims self-defense

The senior State Department official who spoke to CNN said two members of Erdogans security detail were briefly detained during the altercations and subsequently released.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called for the Turkish ambassador to be expelled.

The Turkish embassy, in its statement, claimed theprotesters began aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the President.

The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense, the statement said. We hope that, in the future, appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that similar provocative actions causing harm and violence do not occur.

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Video shows Erdogan watching embassy melee - WND.com

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The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the officials running the newspaperSozcu reportedly kept ties to the Hizmet Islamic movement that Gulen, who is based in Pennsylvania, leads.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen of having organized a failed coup against Erdogan in July 2016, accusations Gulen has steadfastly denied. The Turkish government refers to Hizmet, which consists of a network of international charter schools, as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). Erdogan and Gulen were once close political allies.

Anadolu reports thatMediha Olgun,Sozcus website manager, is in custody, while ownerBurak Akbay had left the country and remains at large.

Anadolu makes the notable distinction that the newspapers employees stand accused of committing crimes on behalf of FETO even though they are not group members. Reuters notes thatamong the official charges against these suspects is an armed rebellion against the government of the Turkish Republic, implying they played a role in the July coup attempt.

Sozcu editor-in-chiefMetin Yilmaz has denied any criminal allegations against his colleagues. The only thing we do is journalism. But doing that in this country is a crime in itself Writing the truth, criticizing and doing stories are all crimes, he said in a statement.

Deutsche Welle lists the other two employees for which the police have drafted warrants as reporterGokmen Ulu andfinancial executive Yonca Kaleli, citing CNN Trk. The publication adds that, despite Anadolus reporting, the newspapers attorney says he has no evidence of a warrant for arrest being issued against his clients.

The known evidence that the newspaper, which publishes reports with a secularist/anti-Islamist bent, supports the Islamic cleric Gulen appears thin.

Sabah,a newspaper friendly to the Erdogan government, reported that the reason for the crackdown onSozcuis an article by Ulu in which the paper alleged to know Erdogans secret location during the July coup attempt. Erdogan famously addressed the nation from an undisclosed location during the coup using the Apple application Facetime, in a move that assured supporters he had not been killed and had not fled the country.

Deutsche Wellesuggests that theSozcu article in question revealed only where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was spending his holiday in the Aegean resort town of MarmarisBy the time the coup attempt took place, Erdogan had left the location.

Yeni Safak, a Turkish newspaper that also publishes stories favorable to Erdogan, confirmed that the story in question was published before the failed coup, though specifying that the charges against Ulu were related to that article.

None of these reports explain what link allegedly exists between the article in question, those arrested, and Fethullah Gulen.

The arrests occur onCommemoration of Atatrk, Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday in Turkey to honor the secularist founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatrk. The leader of the party Atatrk founded, the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), visited the offices ofSozcu Friday to stand in solidarity with the publication.

Sozcu is a newspaper everyone reads, a newspaper that does not bow to repression therefore a newspaper that does not like power. They are true journalists the arrest of journalists and pressure on newspapers is a situation that no democracy will accept,Kemal Kldarolu affirmed in remarks during his visit.

The CHP has stood alongside other secularist publications that have received similar police attention in the past. Among the highest-priority enemies for the Erdogan government in media are the staff ofCumhuriyet, a secularist newspaper.

As of April, the Turkish government has indicted nineteenCumhuriyet employees, from its former editor-in-chief to its cafeteria cook, for alleged ties to both Gulen and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Marxist U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Cumhuriyet is reporting on theSozcu arrests on their front page Friday and continue to publish anti-Erdogan material despite the arrests and departure of former editor-in-chief Can Dndar, in exile in Europe after an assassination attempt at the courthouse where he was being processed.

The CHP has condemned fascist attempts to silenceCumhuriyet and other media outlets allegedly tied to terrorist groups.

Following the July coup attempt, Erdogans government has jailed dozens of journalists and shut down over one hundred media outlets they claim to have ties to coup conspirators, Gulen, or both. The government shut down 131 media outlets overnight in July 2016and has since placed entire media corporations on lockdown.

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Turkey Issues Warrants for Newspaper Chiefs Who Revealed Erdogan's Location on Coup Night - Breitbart News