Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

Every picture tells a story, as they say, and this is how the well-known cartoonist Musa Kart depicts the current state of affairs:



Erdoğan says "whatever my grassroots (he uses the word 'taban' meaning base) says goes", but on the soles (also 'taban' in Turkish) of his shoes is written 'Early Election'.

Essentially everyone and their dog in Turkey knows that, having failed to rig the 7 June elections sufficiently to get the AKP a majority, and specifically an adequate parliamentary majority for the veneer of constitutional respectability to be applied to the Erdoğan dictatorship in the form of a constitutional change permitting him to become an executive president, Erdoğan has decided from day one to have another go in fresh autumn elections and is pulling all the strings behind the scenes as far as the AKP is concerned, and, lo and behold, the AKP's 'efforts' to form a coalition have come to nought. For Erdoğan as president to act in this manner is in flagrant breach of the spirit and letter of the Turkish constitution and the total disregard he is showing for the verdict of the Turkish people as expressed in the ballot box on 7 June that 1) it no longer wishes the AKP to rule on its own and wants a coalition and 2) it has rejected Erdoğan's proposed presidential system shows that Erdoğan has no respect for democracy and the will of the people, and it is a bit rich to couch arguments in favour of this proto-tyrant in language purporting to support democracy.

[Maximus]

ISIS calls for ‘conquest of Istanbul,’ and slams Erdoğan

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/isil-c ... sCatID=338

[kurupetos]

ISIS calls for ‘conquest of Istanbul,’ and slams Erdoğan

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/isil-c ... sCatID=338

It's the prophecy...

[Tim Drayton]

If you were more specific about how you believe Erdoğan is "pulling the strings behind the scenes" I could consider it.

Columnist Abdülkadir Selvi of the Yeni Şafak newspaper, known to be close to the AKP, has today written that President Erdoğan will himself appoint the ministers to serve in the new temporary government to function until early elections in about two months’ time. For the president to appoint ministers is a flagrant violation of the Turkish constitution.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turk ... ecek_.html

PS - Erdoğan also did not give leader of the opposition Kılıçdaroğlu the opportunity to attempt to form a coalition government, even though a CHP-MHP-HDP coalition would be possible in terms of electoral arithmetic, and this is another violation of his duty as president.

[GreekIslandGirl]

ISIS calls for ‘conquest of Istanbul,’ and slams Erdoğan

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/isil-c ... sCatID=338

Oh bless! Foolish Erdogan's playing that false-flag game again of making himself look like the lesser of two evils whilst 'safely' holding on to our Christian City for us.

[Maximus]

The co-mayors of the Sur and Silvan districts of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır were detained in an operation on Wednesday, one which the police launched after claims of a declaration of self-governance in the districts.

Saying the detentions are unlawful, Kışanak questioned why the state exists at all if it cannot protect the dignity of its people and ensure their security. She also said self-governance is a political demand of the Kurdish people, calling on the Turkish government to respect that wish.

http://www.todayszaman.com/national_co- ... 96884.html

[GreekIslandGirl]

More terrorism in Turkey .... heightened state of alert ... martial law ...:

Eight soldiers killed, Istanbul palace attacked as Turkish unrest mounts

Gunmen fired on police outside an Istanbul palace and a bomb killed eight soldiers in the southeast on Wednesday, heightening a sense of crisis as Turkey's leaders struggled to form a new government.

The Istanbul governor's office said two members of a "terrorist group" armed with hand grenades and an automatic rifle were caught after attacking the Dolmabahce palace, popular with tourists and home to the prime minister's Istanbul offices.

The latest attacks come a day after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu gave up on efforts to form a new government after weeks of coalition talks with the opposition failed, possibly paving the way for another election within months.

The lira slid to a new low against the dollar as investors took fright at what some have dubbed a "perfect storm" of political uncertainty, slowing growth and deepening violence.

Turkey has been on heightened state alert since launching what Davutoglu described a "synchronized war on terror" in July, exposing it to reprisals from Islamic State sympathizers, Kurdish militants and leftist radicals alike.

The ruling AK Party, which Erdogan founded, in June suffered its biggest election setback since coming to power in 2002, failing to win a single-party majority for the first time and plunging Turkey into uncertainty not seen since the fragile coalition governments of the 1990s.

Such an arrangement would see power temporarily shared between four political parties with deep ideological divides, potentially paralyzing policy-making and further unraveling investor confidence.

Erdogan, who won Turkey's first popular presidential election in August 2014 and has since stretched the powers of a largely ceremonial post to their limits, has said the system of power has changed in Turkey.

He has championed a full presidential system akin to the United States or France, a constitutional change that would be virtually impossible without a single-party AKP government, but has also insisted that even without that step, his election by the people has bestowed him with extra authority.

"There is now a president in the country not with symbolic power, but with literal power," he said last week.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/ ... 8920150819

[Get Real!]

The solution is a fully independent Kurdistan for the 15 odd million Kurds trapped in a Turkish gulag.

[kurupetos]

The solution is a fully independent Kurdistan for the 15 odd million Kurds trapped in a Turkish gulag.

...and then we can have a solution in Cyprus.

[Lordo]

The solution is a fully independent Kurdistan for the 15 odd million Kurds trapped in a Turkish gulag.

...and then we can have a solution in Cyprus.

a solution is a homogeneous mixture of two or more.......... trust you to be pushdui.