Stephen Lendman

Erdogan is one of the world’s most ruthless despots, Turkey a NATO member, a valued US ally.

Washington largely ignores his tyrannical rule, his abolition of press freedom, imprisoning critics, his war on Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi Kurds.

Turkish lawmakers have immunity from prosecution. Erdogan wants pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) members (the country’s third largest parliamentary bloc) stripped of their fundamental right for opposing ruthless regime policies.

Kurds are Turkey’s largest ethnic minority, representing up to 25% of the population, ruthlessly treated since the 1923 creation of the modern Turkish state - including massacres, extrajudicial executions, torture, forced displacements, arbitrary arrests, ravaged towns and villages, as well as disappeared journalists and regime critics.

Erdogan terrorizes his own people, supports ISIS and likeminded groups while feigning opposition.

Selahattin Demirtas co-chairs the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party of Turkey (HDP) - founded in 2012, combining several left-wing groups, including supporters of equal rights for women and gays, secularists, anti-capitalists and environmentalists, putting it at odds with Erdogan’s agenda.

He accused the HDP of fronting for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - wants Demirtas and HDP party members stripped of their immunity for supporting Kurdish self-determination in southeastern Turkey.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused him of “treason” for meeting with Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last December, publicly denouncing Turkey’s downing of a Russian bomber in Syrian airspace.

He forthrightly opposes Erdogan’s lawlessness, calling him and ruling party officials “murderers.”

Saying “(y)our hand(s) (are) bloody. Blood has splattered from your face, your mouth to your nails and all over you. You are the biggest supporters of terror.”

Erdogan and his cronies consider legitimate criticism treason and/or terrorism. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members unanimously support stripping HDP parliamentarians and other elected regime critics of immunity from prosecution - hardening iron-fisted control more than already.

Erdogan tolerates no criticism. Exposing regime wrongdoing or publicly opposing his policies risk arrest, prosecution and imprisonment.

In January, he called Hitler’s Germany perhaps an ideal way to govern, streamlining decision-making, solidifying iron-fisted rule, eliminating challengers and critics.

America increasingly is run the same way, a money controlled fascist police state masquerading as democratic.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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