The New York Times Gets Around To Turkey's Erdoğan

Maybe they won't go all Walter Duranty on this dictator as they did on Stalin.
(they should still give back the Pulitzer though)

I understand the European poobahs think it's in their (the poobahs, not the subjects citizens) interests to play footsie with Erdoğan but there is absolutely no reason for the U.S. or U.S. media to do so.

The guy says he's the Caliph and got his top Fatwa giver to swear to it.
Roger that, Your Grandiosity, and we're the Sultans of Swing.

From the Editorial Board of the New York Times:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey marched across another line last week. Asked about his push for greatly enhanced executive powers, he told reporters that there was a precedent in “Hitler’s Germany.”

Those were shocking words from a world leader, especially one who heads an ostensible democracy and a member of NATO. Once the international condemnations poured in, Mr. Erdogan’s office tried to backtrack, claiming that his remarks were “distorted by media outlets.”

Mr. Erdogan, however, had already built a disturbing record as an authoritarian leader willing to trample on human rights, the rule of law and political and press freedoms. Since coming to office more than a decade ago, he has used his powers as prime minister and then president to crack down on the media, labor unions and other critics.

Increasingly, many of the worst fears about how he might behave after his conservative and nationalistic Justice and Development Party, the A.K.P., won a crucial election in November have been confirmed. Even before the voting, in an effort to rally support, Mr. Erdogan resumed his war against militant Kurdish separatists, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., by exploiting the group’s reckless decision to break a two-year-old cease-fire.

He is also going after the Peoples’ Democratic Party, or H.D.P., which got enough votes to qualify for seats in Parliament. The Kurdish-dominated H.D.P. champions Kurdish political rights but is not involved in the fighting.

Turkey’s allies, America and Europe, have been disgracefully acquiescent as the army brutally pounds Kurdish targets in the country’s southeast region. The bombardments have hit dozens of urban districts, and since the start of 2015 have killed 3,100 Kurdish militants inside the country and across the border in Iraq, and an unknown number of civilians....MORE

No mention of the ISIS oil deals.