Turkey’s Erdogan Goes Full-Dictator: Arrests Dutch Journalist For Critical Tweet, by Tyler Durden

Castration is not a condition confined to US leaders, including the big cheese, it afflicts European honchos as well. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

One month ago, we cited Turkey’s president Tayyip Recep Erdogan who said that “it is not only the person who pulls the trigger, but those who made that possible who should be defined as terrorists, regardless of their title,” when was urging parliament to include journalists, politicians, academics, and activists under the country’s anti-extremism laws.

Erdogan’s comments came a day after the latest in a string of suicide bombings ripped through Ankara, killing 34 and wounding more than 100 in Kizilay. Since then, Turkey has arrested nearly 50 people with “suspected ties” to the PKK against which Erdogan is waging a highly personal crusade.

However, Turkey’s President didn’t think parliament was moving fast enough on his “request” to expand the definition of “terrorist” because in a speech on Wednesday, he effectively instructed lawmakers to get moving before also urging parliament to deal with “the issue of immunities.”

True to form, Erdogan didn’t wait on parliament to expand the “terrorist” definition before he went ahead and arrested three academics for “terrorist propaganda” after they made the mistake of publicly asking the government to stop the siege on Cizre and other cities in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.”

Then, when a British citizen who teaches at Bilgi University showed up at the courthouse to support the lawyers, he was also arrested. His crime, in his own words: “I am accused because I had several invitations to Kurdish new year (celebrations on March 21) published by the HDP – the third-largest party in the Turkish parliament – in my bag.”

It has gotten so bad, and Turks are so terrified of their despotic “leader” that two months ago, a Turkish truck driver literally sued his own wife for cursing at Erdogan when he spoke on television. “I warned her,” the man later said.

Understandably, the “developed world” (of which Turkey is supposedly part of) has repeatedly closed its eyes to Erdogan’s unprecedented human rights violations: after all Europe needs Turkey now more than ever to halt the mass flow of Syrian refugees within its borders or else virtually all ruling parties in Europe are threatened with being replaced in any upcoming elections. As such, if the country became a despotic tyranny under Erdogan, oh well: after all Europe has not only turned a blind eye to his dictatorial actions but also paid him billions of dollars to “halt” the flow of refugees… and he knows it.

To continue reading: Turkey’s Erdogan Goes Full-Dictator: Arrests Dutch Journalist For Critical Tweet

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