Turkey: From Europe With Love

by Burak Bekdil  •  December 26, 2020 at 5:00 am

     

• Erdoğan also said that he sees Turkey's future in Europe -- the same Europe he just had accused of being "Nazi remnants and fascists."

• The heart of the matter was how tough the EU would go in sanctions at a time when Turkey's national economy was in free-fall. What Brussels decided, it turned out, was: Not so tough

• Legally speaking, the man Erdoğan referred to as a "terrorist" is only a suspect without a court verdict. This, however, is Erdoğan's sick understanding of constitutional rights: He is the elected leader, so he believes he can take the liberty to declare suspects guilty or not guilty while their court cases are in progress.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently managed to dodge a huge European sanctions bomb, at least until March. The trouble is, an inherently anti-Western, Islamist politician who has built his popularity largely on constant confrontations with other nations cannot mentally transform into a peaceful partner within a span of three months. (Photo by Elif Sogut/Getty Images)

If Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, spent more sleepless nights the first week of December than he had over his concerns for U.S. sanctions, it was because of the more imminent and potentially punishing European Union sanctions that would take shape at a summit on December 10-11. He must have had a relatively peaceful sleep when the summit was over. He might have thought that he had managed to get away from a huge European sanctions bomb, at least until March. It may, however, be a bit premature for him to sigh with relief.

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