I’m surprised there is no reclist diary about the current amazing confrontation between Turkish dictator Erdogan (which is pronounced AIR-do-wan) and President Obama.
Erdogan has closed the airspace around the big Incirlik airbase, which the U.S. has been using to bomb ISIS. The power to the airbase has been cut. Thousands of U.S. servicepeople there are now at the highest force protection level. abcnews.go.com/…
In essence, our dear NATO ally has just taken hostage thousands of U.S. troops and millions of dollars of military hardware.
At the same time, he is demanding that the United States arrest and extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has been in exile in Pennsylvania for 17 years. www.aljazeera.com/…
Gulen is considered the leader of the Gulen Movement, a group that supports moderate, mystical Islam, secularism, and democracy. He is admired by many Turks, especially educated elites. He used to be an ally of Erdogan many years ago, but now Erdogan has an absolutely paranoid fear of him. It’s like Stalin and Trotsky. He is blaming the failed military coup on him, which is preposterous. But right now many thousands of Turks are (probably) being tortured, killed or otherwise fired and discriminated against because of ostensible support for the Gulen Movement.
This is potentially a major geopolitical crisis. Obama has to refuse the demand to capture Gulen. So what then does Erdogan do?
I have to leave for an out of town trip in a few minutes. I hope there will be some discussion on this. I’ll be back this evening.