Continue reading Turkey’s Regime: Openly Antisemitic, Allied with Iran, Anti-American…And Glorified in the Western Media
By Barry Rubin
Why is it that Anthony Shadid, the same New York Times reporter who has constantly whitewashed Syria and Hizballah now writing a glowing portrait of Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Erdogan on the verge of Turkey’s June 12 election?
Shadid frequently quotes only pro-Hizballah sources in his articles on Lebanon without mentioning their political views but instead giving them cover under a variety of misleading affiliations, including a think tank that doesn’t actually exist.
Erdogan has led Turkey out of its 65-year-long alliance with America; allied with Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah; fundamentally transformed Turkish society; taken over or intimidated the media; presided over massive repression, including the arrests of many journalists on trumped-up charges; and is seeking to destroy Israel and make Turkey the closest possibleapproximation to an Islamist state.
Once he is reelected, if that happens, he will go much further in destroying Turkish democracy. If he has a two-thirds’ majority he will rewrite Turkey’s constitution. In short, he is an enemy of the United States and of democracy while being a friend to its foes.
Yet the Times’ profile, and much other media coverage, makes him and his regime sound wonderful.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader
(seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East
(Wiley), and The Truth About Syria
(Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press later this year. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas MediaTechnorati Tag: Turkey and Erdogan.
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