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Anti-Semitism Runs Deep in Turkey's AKP

(American Interest) Walter Russell Mead - An excellent analysis in the Turkey Analyst of how the Gezi Park protests have concretely set back Erdogan's political program includes the following passage digging into the recent anti-Semitic drivel seeping out of the party leadership: "On June 16, 2013...the main pro-AKP daily newspaper Yeni Safak claimed that it had uncovered evidence that the Gezi Park protests had been orchestrated by the 'Jewish lobby' in the U.S. and even published the names and photographs of a number of prominent Jewish Americans who it alleged were the leaders of the conspiracy. The article was publicly endorsed by a succession of leading members of the AKP, who maintained that the government also had concrete evidence of the plot." Anti-Semitism is not just morally reprehensible; it's more often a symptom of a political mental disorder - a sign of an inability to govern rationally. Erdogan's lack of effort to condemn this kind of rot certainly doesn't bode well for his party's future - or his country's.
2013-07-11 00:00:00
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