US Silence Over Turkish President’s Crimes Turns Washington Into Accomplice

Washington should objectively assess Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule, not how Turkey used to be or how the US would have liked it to be, according to the former senior advisor and a foreign policy expert at the US State Department, David Phillips.

It is time for the White House to consider facts and no longer turn a blind eye to them. Recently, Turkish president praised ‘Nazi Germany’ in the context of his own tenure.

Erdogan also impedes journalists and freedom of opinion. At the moment 34 journalists are in prison on various charges including, “insulting the president.”

The Turkish president has targeted citizens of his own country. “In October, Erdogan re-started a civil war with the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in a cynical ploy to gain support from nationalist voters,” David Phillips wrote.

Currently, in Turkey there are frequent attacks on the Kurdish people under the pretext of combating terrorism. In addition, corruption is rampant in Turkey, and even family members of Erdogan are involved in corruption schemes.

As for the foreign policy of the Turkish president, there are also various issues for which he is to blame, noted the expert in his article.

Rather than confronting Daesh (Islamic State) terrorists, Turkey has provided medical assistance to the wounded militants in Turkish hospitals and across the border in Syria, weapons and money was laundered to Daesh militants, Phillips pointed out in his article for the Huffington Post.

Similarly, “Turkey's foreign policy in the Balkans promotes a neo-Ottoman agenda, aimed at expanding its influence in former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey exports Islamism under the guise of cultural cooperation, building mosques and financing Islamic unions and institutions in the Western Balkans.”

In addition, according to David Phillips, Erdogan deliberately attacks US allies in Syria, in particularly the Kurds, who are effectively fighting against Daesh.

“The Obama administration turns a blind eye to Erdogan's travesties,” Phillips wrote.

The Obama administration must review and change its approach to Turkey. Washington's appalling silence makes it complicit in Erdogan's crimes, concluded the author.