ERDOGAN LOOKS TO SOLIDIFY HIS POWER FURTHER

The UK Telegraph reports on Recep Erdogan's bid to change the would-be Turkish constitution further, to make himself an autocratic "president" rather than just a prime minister:

For the past year, he has been mired in controversy and corruption scandals. He is vilified by his closest neighbours. But Turkey's charismatic prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is likely to sweep to a new victory in elections on Sunday that could cement his grip on the country's politics for the next decade.

And that's because, as many realize, the election is bound to be rigged. And shame on the writer for calling Erdogan "charismatic", because he's nothing but repulsive, and has proven it.

Mr Erdogan is predicted by opinion polls to win an outright majority in the first round of voting for a new president, a remarkable turnaround for a man many thought could not survive allegations featuring millions of dollars in shoeboxes, abuses of power by his businessman son, and tacit support for jihadists on the country's doorstep.

Oh, please. "Opinion polls"? It's more likely that, as mentioned, rigging will decide in his favor. Such can only be expected when Islamofascists in the making decide they want everything going their way.

Although the position till now has been more ceremonial than his own, he has pledged to turn the presidency into the country's real power base, meaning that he will be able to operate without the constraints of parliament or his party, the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party, the AKP.

And that's exactly why he wants to change it all, much like what nazi Germany went through. But it's the parliament, not the party per se, he wants to obliterate, because the parliament is where the opposition really resides, so far. Then, here's some propaganda about Turkey's supposed prosperity in economy:

That popularity was built on economic growth and reforms that have turned Turkey into a regional powerhouse and which even some of his opponents respect. Provincial cities on the Anatolian plains, once impoverished Middle Eastern backwaters, now boast neat boulevards, shining tower blocks and decent housing for their middle and working class residents.

What economy? They don't seem to be doing any better than most European countries, and he's already been taking steps to ensure women won't do so well on their own.

It was a series of violent protests in Istanbul last summer that turned attention to the downside: that Mr Erdogan, a religious conservative who has frequently criticised Turkey's secular modern history, is a deeply polarising figure seen by the opposition as a new "Sultan", determined to rule by decree.

I'm not sure you can call a country that, long before he came along, was opposed to recognition of the Armenian Holocaust, "secular". In fact, that's probably what led to people like him rising up to turn the country back to the dark ages it was once mired in. And contrary to what the journalist must be thinking, those who feel Erdogan wants to be a self-appointed "sultan" are right. The sultan of Brunei is already proving how awful he is, and Erdogan is sparing no expense to reach that same goal. Unfortunately, none of this matters to UK propagandists like the one who wrote this piece for the Telegraph, one more reason why Erdogan is bound to reach his goal at such ease.