Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Turkey's George W. Bush?

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reacting to his country's massive protests much like our 43rd  president did in the face of Iraq War dissent. 

AP Images/Gerald Herbert

In February 2003, massive rallies were held worldwide— including one of some 200,000 people in Washington, DC—to protest the impending invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition. President George W. Bush’s response when asked whether the protests had influenced his thinking at all was to scoff at them, saying “It's like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group.

Turkey Takes Off

The EU's perennial reject has seen impressive growth—but there are warning signs for the future.

Flickr/ognjenodobasic

 

What a difference ten years makes. In 2001, Greece adopted the euro as its national currency. Its borrowing costs, which plummeted in expectation of this momentous event, were almost as low as Germany’s. Its growth rate for the year climbed to 4.1 percent and inflation hovered around 4 percent—a sharp decline from the double digits of the ’80s and ’90s. It was a country on the way up. On the other hand, Turkey, its neighbor and geopolitical arch-rival, was mired in a major financial crisis. Its currency was collapsing, its banking system was broken and unemployment was skyrocketing.

So-Called "Islamist" Turkey.

Spencer Ackerman responds to Eli Lake's piece on the deteriorating strategic relationship between American Jews and Turkey over the Gaza flotilla incident. The current rap against the Turkish government is that the governing party is "Islamist":