Trump fist-bumped Erdogan at NATO meeting, says it's "right" to become dictator

[DavidB.]

I thought disliking Erdogan was Islamophobic. Interesting how our resident appeasement cultists suddenly oppose Erdogan now that Trump is chill with him.

[DavidB.]

Anyone who supports democracy and the rule of law should be opposed to Erdogan. Why even try to defend Trump on this? I'm not saying this makes Trump the Hitler that the left makes him out to be, but can't we just agree this is pretty darn bad?

I don't disagree that this is bad at all. No defense of Trump's actions here -- though I find throwing out his Georgian and Ukrainian allies much worse than the firstbump, which nonetheless was also inappropriate.

The only supporter Erdogan supporter here I can think of is TimTurner. C’mon man.

At this point, yes, but it wasn't like that a few years ago. People like myself and Tender have been highly critical of Erdogan for years and were considered "Islamophobic" for it. I even remember being ridiculed for calling him a dictator. We were right all the time.

[DavidB.]

At this point, yes, but it wasn't like that a few years ago. People like myself and Tender have been highly critical of Erdogan for years and were considered "Islamophobic" for it. I even remember being ridiculed for calling him a dictator. We were right all the time.

"A few years ago" being the operative words, in case you didn't notice.

It turned out that we've been right all along.

[DavidB.]

Erdogan has been doing things like blocking social media since 2014 (and the first authoritorian measures started before that). Maybe he was a relatively acceptable leader (by Turkish standards) in the mid 2000s but he's been off the deep end for years by now.

Exactly. Had the pleasure to witness some of it myself when I was in Istanbul right before the local elections in early 2014. Twitter was shut down (RIP) and police were using tear gas at Taksim Square, which my group was told to avoid but of course yours sincerely wanted to see what was going on. Erdogan has been behaving like a dictator since the Gezi Park riots in early 2013, and even before that point everybody could have seen it coming.