Turkey: Another Foreign Policy Success?

[jwoodie]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

 

[Moonglow]

Well throw your hate in the ring and let's see how well you do at it.

 

[jwoodie]

Well throw your hate in the ring and let's see how well you do at it.

Brilliant retort. Try again after you get your GED.

 

[waltky]

Anybody wanna place any bets on if Erdogan will go along with it?...

Turkey protests: Ruling AK party may hold vote on park
12 June 2013 > The deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling AK party says it is open to the idea of a referendum on controversial plans to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park.

Huseyin Celik hoped the "gesture of goodwill" would clear the area. But he warned: "Those... who seek to provoke and remain in the park will face the police." Police treatment of protesters campaigning against the redevelopment triggered broader demonstrations that have continued since 31 May. "We might put it to a referendum... In democracies only the will of the people counts," Mr Celik said. "We think that after this gesture of goodwill, people will decide to go home."

The plans to redevelop Gezi Park sparked off the current unrest

The BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul says Mr Celik's comments represent the first time that the AK party has openly discussed letting voters decide what happens to the park. Demonstrators have remained there throughout the protests. There has been a mixed reaction among protesters on Twitter, with some welcoming the proposal and others mistrustful of the authorities. Turkish media reported on Wednesday that PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan had told the interior minister to end the protests in Gezi Park within 24 hours. More than 20 opposition MPs have gone to the park to try to prevent any police intervention. Senior European diplomats have expressed strong concern over Turkey's response to the protests.

'Freedom of speech'

Hundreds of protesters have now gathered in Taksim Square, next to the park, although the square is about half as full as it was on Tuesday. Police stood back along the edges of the square, which had been clear during the day after a series of violent clashes between police and protesters on Tuesday and overnight. During the day, Mr Erdogan met 11 activists, but protest leaders dismissed the meeting. In both Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday thousands of lawyers left court in their black robes to march through the streets, protesting against the treatment of their colleagues during demonstrations.

Dozens of lawyers were briefly held in Istanbul on Tuesday as they voiced their opposition to police action to clear the square. "Our friends who had been detained in Istanbul were taken under custody just because they were reading a press release," said one of the lawyers in Ankara, Mehmet Toker. "We are here to defend freedom of speech." Demonstrators accuse Mr Erdogan of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state. "Oppression has been going on for months," said another lawyer, Ege Inal. "The government is exactly like the ones that they have been criticising. That is why we are here."

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[NYcarbineer]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

What policy are you talking about? Or is this just one more infantile troll thread...

 

[jwoodie]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

What policy are you talking about?

Exactly. Do we have a foreign policy? If so, what is it?

 

[deltex1]

Dumfuk Obabble urges that opposition forces in turkey use dialogue rather than bullets to resolve their problems...sorta like we do here in the USA....

 

[TheOldSchool]

Our foreign policy for the middle east should be to STAY OUT. Either they'll work out their problems, which will be good for everyone, or the crazy people will blow each other up until they're all gone, which will also be good for everyone. Then in 50 years or so maybe the middle east will have become a sensible place to visit.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

What policy are you talking about?

Exactly. Do we have a foreign policy? If so, what is it?

In other words you don't have any idea what the fuck you're talking about.

Turkey's unrest is internal related to the secularists protesting a shift towards a more Islamist less secular state.

Since presumably we would prefer Turkey remain secular, a reasonable person might conclude that the movement in Turkey to resist government inclinations to do otherwise would be a good thing.

 

[Political Junky]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

What policy are you talking about? Or is this just one more infantile troll thread...

The latter.

 

[konradv]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

Pie-in-the-sky? What's that supposed to mean? I don't think you have a clue!

The Preacher and the Slave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ekrem]

Anybody wanna place any bets on if Erdogan will go along with it?...

Turkey protests: Ruling AK party may hold vote on park
12 June 2013 > The deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling AK party says it is open to the idea of a referendum on controversial plans to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park.

In his earlier career Istanbul elected Erdogan as Istanbul mayor.
In the last Parliament elections Erdogan got 50% of Istanbul votes.
Together with the votes from the right (MHP) I suppose 65-70 % of Istanbul would vote yes in a referendum.

 

[Avatar4321]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

All that will do is delay people from growing up another 10 years.

Besides, you sure as heck aren't taking my right to vote away. Nor my ability to run for the Presidency, even if I never exercise that right.

 

[ekrem]

In other words you don't have any idea what the fuck you're talking about.

Turkey's unrest is internal related to the secularists protesting a shift towards a more Islamist less secular state.

Since presumably we would prefer Turkey remain secular, a reasonable person might conclude that the movement in Turkey to resist government inclinations to do otherwise would be a good thing.

Police has restored secular order at Taksim by removing the communist banners and the portrays of Marxist revolutionaries from the Ataturk-Culture-Center and hanging Ataturk's portray and the flag over the building:

 

[ekrem]

Republic Monument - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It was also cleansed from the communist banners and graffitis.
If they are "secularists" they don't paint a hammer&sickle on a statue depicting Ataturk, and cover his face with a flag reading SDP (Socialist Party of Turkey).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Democracy_Party

 

[jwoodie]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

Pie-in-the-sky? What's that supposed to mean?

It means apologize to the Muslim world and assume that they will love us.

 

[jwoodie]

What policy are you talking about?

Exactly. Do we have a foreign policy? If so, what is it?

In other words you don't have any idea what the fuck you're talking about.

You will never do well in Scrabble until you move beyond four letter words.

 

[Osomir]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

A couple of things:

1.) Our foreign policy shift has been absolutely great, and now incorporates economic stability in with national defense (long overdue). (it is called economic statecraft).

2.) I'm not sure how you could possibly blame President Obama or our foreign policy for what is going on in Turkey.

 

[Osomir]

Aren't you glad we "reset" our foreign policy? It is working out so well! We need to raise the voting age to 35 (and the President's age to 55) so that we don't have to keep committing the same pie-in-the-sky mistakes...

What policy are you talking about?

Exactly. Do we have a foreign policy? If so, what is it?

As per my post above: it is called the economic statecraft agenda.

Economic Statecraft