Erdogan’s ’Train’ Set to Run Over Turkey’s Democracy

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. 

The ballots have been counted in Turkey’s snap do-over election and, surprise, surprise, the ruling AK Party finally got the result it wanted. Its Islamic supremacist president, Recep Tayyep Erdogan, famously once said that “Democracy is like a train: when you reach your destination, you get off.”  This weekend’s election likely will be his last stop.

Just five months ago, the AKP was repudiated at the polls with three other parties taking a majority of the seats in parliament. Had those results stood, Erdogan would have been unable to get Turkey’s constitution rewritten so as to transform the presidency from a largely symbolic post to an all-powerful one.

So, Erdogan helped prevent a coalition government from being formed by, among other things, exacerbating tensions with Turkey’s Kurdish population.  His Islamist train will now run over what’s left of Turkey’s democracy.

This is Frank Gaffney.