ERDOGAN'S AKP "REFORMS" PASS REFERENDUM: TURKEY RETREATS FURTHER FROM FREE WORLD

NYTIMES:

Turkish voters approved a sweeping package of constitutional reforms by a wide margin on Sunday, handing a major victory to the Islamist-rooted government and marking another concrete step in an inexorable shift in power away from the secular Westernized elite that has governed modern Turkey for most of its history.

... opponents of the changes say they constitute an orchestrated power grab aimed at undermining the secular order established by the country’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 and giving the religious conservatives power over the military and judiciary, the last independent guardians of the secular state.

“The suggested changes are nothing more than the ruling party trying to convert institutions that do not favor their government, closer to their side,” Sedat Ergin, a columnist of Hurriyet, a leading newspaper, wrote before the vote. “After these changes, all we would be left with will be a system lacking checks and balances.”

TURKEY IS NOW FIRMLY ENSCONCED IN THE ISLAMIST/JIAHDIST CAMP.

NATO SHOULD THROW TURKEY OUT AND THE EU SHOULDN'T LET THEM IN.

THEIR CONTINUED PRESENCE IN NATO IS A SECURITY THREAT TO THE ENTIRE FREE WORLD.

HERE'S A REMINDER/REFRESHER ON WHO ERDOGAN IS, WHAT HE AND THE AKP AND ISLAM STAND FOR :

... Erdogan’s provocative statement while mayor of Istanbul -- (the full statement was quoted in a NY Times story by Stephen Kinzer from 2/16/1998:

"The mosques are our barracks, the domes are our helmets, the minarets are our swords, and the faithful are our army” ...

WE IGNORE THEM AT OUR PERIL.

AND IT'S INSANE TO IGNORE THEM AND NOT TAKE THEM AT THEIR WORD.

REMINDER: TURKEY SUPPORTS HAMAS AND IRAN.

IT'S TIME THEY WERE KICKED OUT OF NATO.