{"id":18708,"date":"2016-03-10T12:49:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T17:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18708"},"modified":"2016-03-10T12:49:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T17:49:08","slug":"as-turkey-turns-totalitarian-eu-officials-move-to-accelerate-eu-membership-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18708","title":{"rendered":"As Turkey Turns Totalitarian, EU Officials Move to Accelerate EU Membership Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As Turkey Turns Totalitarian, EU Officials Move to Accelerate EU Membership Bid<\/a><\/h3>\n
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The EU is turning a blind eye to an opposition crackdown in Turkey that\u2019s polarizing society and complicating efforts to find a political solution to the nation\u2019s Kurdish conflict, Demirtas said in an impromptu interview en route to Brussels. European leaders are expected to ink an agreement with Turkey on Monday that will offer faster EU membership negotiations and visa-free travel in exchange for stopping refugees from crossing the country to enter Europe.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Demirtas was speaking two days after Turkish government trustees\u00a0took over\u00a0one of Turkey\u2019s primary opposition newspapers in a dramatic raid that sparked clashes between protesters and police. The seizure reflects a broader intolerance of dissent that has also undermined the HDP, who are now largely excluded from mainstream media coverage.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the same day that authorities took control of the Zaman newspaper, European Council President Donald Tusk, who was in\u00a0Istanbul, tweeted a picture of himself with Erdogan in front of a pair of golden throne-like seats.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was almost identical to a\u00a0photo-op\u00a0with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year, which was around the same time that the EU agreed to\u00a0Erdogan\u2019s request to withhold a critical report on Turkish democracy until after the general election a few days later.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 From the Bloomberg article:\u00a0EU Making `Big Mistake\u2019 in Turkey Deal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

European Union bureaucrats like to portray themselves as enlightened, competent technocrats who nobly represent humanity\u2019s grandest political and economic experiment. Meanwhile, the stark reality is the EU is little\u00a0more than a bunch of self-interested frauds willing to do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to preserve their own status and power. When you peel back the EU\u2019s facade of disingenuous\u00a0humanitarian pledges, what you discover\u00a0is a putrid cadre of incompetent, corrupt and deeply unethical\u00a0politicians.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Turkey Turns Totalitarian, EU Officials Move to Accelerate EU Membership Bid The EU is turning a blind eye to an opposition crackdown in Turkey that\u2019s polarizing society and complicating efforts to find a political solution to the nation\u2019s Kurdish conflict, Demirtas said in an impromptu interview en route to Brussels. European leaders are expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[83,279,284,359,4285,6174,1213,818,10369],"class_list":["post-18708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-bloomberg","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-germany","tag-liberty-blitzkrieg","tag-michael-krieger","tag-totalitarianism","tag-turkey","tag-zaman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18709,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708\/revisions\/18709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}