Turkey on the brink of political implosion

Submitted by Mehmet S. Turkel (United States), Jun 6, 2015 at 08:36

The title of Mr.Pipes article " Turkeys Unimportant Election" is a very clever form of piquing one's attention. It worked for me as I read the analysis and pretty much agree with the entire content including the plea for the reader to put his/her moral support behind HDP to reach the 10% treshold . I should point out that I do not agree with the title and concur with the headlines and articles written by NYTimes and other well respected papers around the world.

I am a secular Turk who had the great fortune of coming to US for college education at tender age of 17 in 1967. After college, I chose to stay,raised a family and became a naturalized citizen.Over the years, I have been closely following the political and economic developments.

I submit to you that Turkey is on the brink of political implosion if Erdogan's party wins the 2/3 majority to change the constitution and declare himself de facto Sultan/Dictator and rule 80 million people at his will.

Mr.Pipes is correct stating that Erdogan is already ruling the country at will even before the legitimate authority is bestowed upon him by reaching the super majority of delegates. He has managed to shred the current constitution by many actions including but not limited to; campaigning for the AKP party, using the Koran to appeal the pious masses; removing the judges and prosecutors whose rulings he does not like; suing hundreds of citizens for using ill language against him ( by pointing out that insulting the President of Turkey is against the very constitution he has been using as his doormat); sending journalists to jails for publishing articles unfavorable to him and his policies; building an 1100 room palace (Aksaray) which is 30 times the size of Versailles for his granduer; and on and on.

I agree with Mr.Pipes calling for support of HDP so that they can obtain the minimum 10% threshold and thwart Erdogan's plans for "legitimate diktatorship". In fact, last week, I spoke and plead with my secular relatives who normally support the CHP, to vote for HDP. I hope they will.

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