Why this Blog?

A place where I can lament the changing times; for eccentric comments on current affairs and for unfashionable views, expressed I hope, in cogent style; also occasional cris de coeur largely concerned, I regret to say, with myself.



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Monday 18 July 2016

Bloody Fools

The headline above is not a reference to the outcome of the recent referendum concerning the Untied Kingdom's membership of the European Union; I made my views clear in my previous post here and I have not changed my mind.
 
No, I am referring to events last weekend in Turkey.
 
First I must make clear that the deaths of several hundred people is tragic.  Equally I must say that had the people ignored President Erdogan's request to come out into the streets and instead remained at home, perhaps there would have been less bloodshed.  Of course, there is in Turkey a long tradition of military coups and perhaps collective memory inspired the popular support for the president.
 
We are informed that this is a triumph for "democracy" that much over-used concept used to justify all sorts of rubbish - if in doubt consider e.g. the late and unlamented German Democratic Republic, or the appalling Democratic Republic of Congo.
 
Can the Turkish people not see what Erdogan is doing? 
 
He is destroying Mustapha Kemal's (Ataturk's) brilliant modernisation and secularisation of the country.  And he is doing his best to become a new Putin - or even worse, possibly aping some of those bandits who rule a sea of corruption in such countries as Kazakhstan, Azerbijan or Belarus, with iron hands.
 
Moral?  Get democratic and cut your own throat - why not ask some of the journalists currently imprisoned in Turkey?
 
Very sad, and I am certain that the great Ataturk is spinning in his grave.
 
Until the next time