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Harut Sassounian
California Courier Editor
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh one billion dollars of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
During a Nov. 6 ceremony in Istanbul to receive an honorary doctorate, Erdogan proudly proclaimed: “I don’t care if they call me a dictator or whatever else. It goes in one ear, out the other!” THAT’S BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING IN BETWEEN TO STOP IT.
That’s megalomaniac pseudo-Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the first of his name, the pretender to the Ottoman throne to you sir.
The man lost the plot years ago, absolute nutjob these days. It gets to a point where you can’t muster up the energy to be angry or indignant anymore. If the people keep electing a man that would rather see our country burn to the ground than give up his power, let it burn. If anyone people deserve a ruler like Erdogan it’s us.
RVDV:
You of course know Turkey: I am just an outside observer.
Nevertheless, this is how I see it:
Erdogan is the leader, but he is just the embodiment of the evil that is AKP. Erdogan was elected popularly and democratically. AKP is full of people like him. Hitler, also elected democratically, was the charismatic leader of Nazi Party, but there were many, many Nazi leaders like him: it was the ideology, the belief system.
AKP has a deep and wide base in the Turk electorate. Erdogan will be gone some day, but the Islamist vs (secular) Kemalist schism is here to stay.
When the assassination of Erdogan failed, AKP followers came out in massive numbers. I was listening to an interview by an Armenian Turkologist a couple of weeks ago. He said this: in all previous coup attempts by the military, the Turk people still kept their _veneration_ for the Turkish military. That changed: the public humiliation of Turkish military was unprecedented. No need to recount here what Erdogan’s people did to the mutinous generals (!): this is a family-friendly web site.
I will not lie to you: I am very happy that the future of Genocidal Turkey is a breakup.
At least in two: Kurdistan and Turkistan.
Hopefully more than two.
Turks, who came from far, far away, have been an existential threat to my indigenous people for too long.
Enough.
Avery:
When you add AKP supporters and the far-right MHP supporters you have (just looking at numbers from past elections) well over 60% of the electorate. Any Turks or Turcophile’s in the west that thinks Turkey can “go back” to being a democracy (it was never that democratic, Islamists or not) are deluded.
The military thing is… strange. You had people murdering and calling for the murder of soldiers the night of the coup and then like a week later those same people were supposedly paying their respects to the military since it did not really put its full weight behind the coup and it appeared to be just one faction.
So, 1 bit of good news, several bits of good news:
Good News — No more Gulenists
Bad News — This has been used as a cover to purge anyone perceived as not loyal to AKP
Bad News — Turkey has bigger problems than Gulen
Bad News — President/Dictator Erdogan has 100% control over everyone and everything — even violating the constitution and arresting HDP MPs is something he can do without hesitation.
Whether or not the future of Turkey is a breaking up, who knows. Who would’ve though we’d be here 10 years ago? What is clear is that IF that the future of Turkey is a break up it means that MY people – Kurds and Alevis – are the ones who will pay the price.
The big question is will Trump support him. I have a feeling he will.
We in USA hope to hell TRUMP WILL NOT SUPPORT THAT INSANE JERK We cant stand him and cant believe hes in MATO but our coutries government has gone to the dogs Trump is our only hope
WHEN YOU ELECT A CLOWN YOU MUST EXPECT A CIRCUS and this is exactly what this tinpot dictator is doing to Turkey. the entire country is tattered torn and broken and he still says everything is under control. The man was a smitji selling buns in Istanbul with no qualifications whatsoever. He is a qualified terrorist, and thief who is also now a mass murderer negligent damages should be paid to all the innocent people who died in the earthquake damaged buildings that he allowed and he made money on. He must be hung like Menderes and made to pay heavily in the Hague for crimes against humanity.