Turkish Leader Slams UN Security Council

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

Sep 24, 5:20 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The president of Turkey slammed the U.N. Security Council's inaction on some of the world's most pressing issues, accusing its members of rendering the world body ineffective.

In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the U.N. has repeatedly failed to act, citing the Syrian civil war which has killed more than 200,000 people and this summer's Gaza War in which more than 2,000 people died.

He also criticized the U.N. for what he termed the legitimization of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi who spoke from the same podium shortly before.

He said the democratically elected President of Egypt, Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, was overthrown by a coup, and the U.N. chose to legitimize the person who conducted this coup - a reference to El-Sissi. "We should respect the choice of the people in the ballot box. If we want to support coups...then why does the United Nations exist?" he said.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UNITED_NATIONS_TURKEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-24-17-20-24

[sadoldgirl]

1. Does Erdogan want to make sure

that Turkey will not get into the EU?

[Bragi]

5. Forget the EU, why are they in NATO?

Though I am skeptical about the merits of this new war, nonetheless, I'm appalled that Turkey is not joining the coalition to fight ISIS.

Seriously, Turkey should be booted from NATO if they continue to refuse to take a lead role against Islamic forces right on their own damn border.

[Lurks Often]

6. Because Turkey controls the access from the Black Sea

and formed the southeastern border with the then Soviet Union & Warsaw Pact. It isn't Turkey that is the problem, it is Erdogan.

[Bragi]

9. Erdogan was recently re-elected with a massive majority, right?

Because of that, I'm not giving the Turkish people a pass on this.

I was in Turkey this past spring (loved it!) but I'd be quite surprised (though pleased) if it remains a secular country for much longer. Erdogan is gradually reversing the Ataturk revolution, and I don't see him being stopped.

My advice to any westerners wanting to see Turkey: do it soon.

Here's my favorite PMs-aide-consoles-mine-disaster-families pic from my visit:




http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/05/15/Turkey-outraged-as-PM-s-aide-kicks-protester.html

[Lurks Often]

10. Sort of

Erdogan and his party won just under 51.79% of the vote, with the other two candiates and their parties receiving 38.44% and 9.76%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_presidential_election,_2014

From the link: "The election was criticised by both the political opposition and international observers for alleged media bias in favour of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, corruption allegations, the inaccuracy of opinion polls and the misuse of official public resources during Erdoğan's campaign"

[Bragi]

11. Okay, how about a non-massive majority?

I accept your point. The electoral map on that Wioki page you reference is interesting. It shows that the SW coastal areas and some of Istanbul went with opposition parties, while voters in the interior agriculture areas, they went for Erdogan.

That reflects my experience in the country. Coastal people are more secular and liberal, the country people in the interior are quite conservative and very Islamic.

[Lurks Often]

15. Erdogan seems to be playing both sides

On one hand he wants the benefits of being in Nato and the economic benefits of either being in the EU or trading with the EU and at the same time he seems to more of a Muslim religious fundamentalist then his predecessor's.

Erdogan's purge of the Turkish military makes me nervous, since the Turkish military has always been fairly non-religious and has acted in the past when the civilian government starting to allow Islam to have too much of an impact in government affairs.

[jakeXT]

2. Always remember who's paying your carpet

Recently, as the above chart shows, the rate of growth of bank borrowing has tapered off. What has replaced bank loans? According to Turkey's central bank, the main source of new financing cannot be identified: It appears on the books of the central bank as "errors and omissions".

Analysts close to Turkey's ruling party claim that the unidentified flows represent a political endorsement from Turkey's friends in the Gulf States. Quoted in Al-Monitor, political scientist Mustafa Sahin boasted: "The secret of how Turkey avoided the 2008 global economic crisis is in these mystery funds. The West suspects that Middle East capital is entering Turkey without records, without being registered. Qatar and other Muslim countries have money in Turkey. These unrecorded funds came to Turkey because of their confidence in Erdogan and the Muslim features of the AKP and the signs of Turkey restoring its historic missions."

It seems clear from the data that short-term bank lending and mystery inflows have been interchangeable means of covering Turkey's deficit. When the growth of bank lending slowed, errors and omissions rose during the past eight years, and vice versa.

This continuing trade-off suggests that bank lending and mystery inflows have a common origin, presumably in the Gulf States. But it seems unlikely that Qatar is the main source of funds for Turkey, simply because its resources are too small to cover the gap. Qatar shares Turkey's enthusiasm for political Islam in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular, but there are alternative explanations. Despite its historical dislike for its former Ottoman overlord and strong disagreement about the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia may want to influence Turkey as a Sunni counterweight to Iran's influence in the region.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-230914.html

[salib]

3. Wow, are these the only responses?

1. Must not want to be a part of the EU.
2. Is getting support that is somehow "off the books", which really sounds like not under the control of the G7. Suck for the powers that be that these guys do not have to go begging to the IMF or the EU for loans. Working out so well for so many others who are playing the game, right?

How about the claim that Egypt has an illegitimate Gov't and the UN is supporting it? Any discussion. I think it is a good point he makes.

[Purveyor]

4. This place 'loves them some coup d'etats' so you won't hear much as long as

it is our 'stooge' installed.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Erdogan is right about Egypt, but he's made things far worse in Syria.

Erdogan supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which, while an Islamic political party, played by democratic rules and won the presidency, only to be overthrown by the deep state and stupid "liberals."

In Syria, Erdogan has blatantly interfered in the internal affairs of his neighbor, inflamed the civil war, allowed safe havens and cross-border access to the jihadis, and is probably involved in buying oil from them.

[seveneyes]

8. Sanity does not include having religious nuts running Egypt, Syria or any other country

Ergo, Erdogan needs to flash the clue phone and put his religious cluephobes on hold.

[uriel1972]

12. I do not want to see "religious nuts" run countries...

On the other hand, a democratically elected government is a democratically elected government. We can't just remove democratically elected heads of state on the basis of "We don't like them"... oh.

[EX500rider]

13. "We can't just remove democratically elected heads of state"

No but the people of Egypt can and did.

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. The Egyptian military removed Morsi and gunned down a thousand of his supporters.

And has sentenced thousands more to death in kangaroo courts.

Yes, there was popular support for the coup. Egyptians apparently decided they weren't ready for democracy.

[dipsydoodle]

16. I do still find that odd

and attribute what happened to external forces.

[dipsydoodle]

17. Oh.

Well for starters Chile and Iran come mind.