Fewer than 40 days to the elections, decent chance the the opposition party coalition will win, and then they get to try and fix the structural problems created through the last decade and the earthquake…
Even if we set aside how Erdogan plans to bring NATO / EU countries like Greece, the Balkan states and Hungary, plus Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and bits of Ukraine under his control, the prospect of him trying to rule those famously unruly peoples boggles the mind. Good luck!
Lol, this is borderline demented. I for one can’t wait to see the combined Soviet-Ottoman-Iranian forces fight the uneasy Saudi-Egyptian-Israeli alliance for control of Iraq in the next few years. I can believe that certain people might want that, but I also think maybe Prigozhin plays too many Paradox games.
Ottomans and RUssians are supposed to be eternal enemies!
What, Russians don’t use footstools?
Erdogan hospitalized, family coming in to visit. Does not seem good for him.
Its all rumors. The only things we know for sure is:
- Tuesday night Erdogan cuts TV interview short abruptly, off camera.
- Campaign claims “upset stomach” and “resting at home”
- Wednesday: Events canceled
- Thursday: Events canceled, except for one remote appearance via video conference (planned).
Most social media/reporting is just misinformation, speculation and nonsense atm.
Add in that Turkey is Turkey and no one seems to actually know anything.
Is there any reason to believe Erdogan won’t put his thumb (heavily) on the scale?
I’m a member of War on the Rocks which provides Foreign Policy articles and podcasts (Michael Kofman has a podcast with them on Russia and Ukraine). They just sent out a short email with opinions on the Turkey Election from three experts and this one from Merve Tahiroğlu was directly relevant to your question so I thought I’d pass it on.
An application on Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu’s smartphone that can determine a person’s identity in just a few seconds after his photo is taken with the phone has drawn criticism from legal experts, police, opposition politicians and social media users for allegedly acquiring and storing people’s personal data illegally.
Soylu introduced the application called “KİM” (Who), which is normally used in intelligence operations, in a video released on the YouTube channel of Turkey’s biggest online technology website, ShiftDelete.Net, on Sunday.
In the video Soylu takes a photo of his interviewer, Hakkı Alkan, from ShiftDelete.Net and the app identifies him in seconds.
[…]
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Gürsel Tekin stated that the application’s upload to the Apple App Store poses a “security issue,” as Apple has access to all applications uploaded there. “Investigating, using, and processing personal data, including biometric data belonging to 85 million citizens, in such an arbitrary manner through a US-based website is a crime. The interior minister can’t access, observe or process personal data arbitrarily,” Tekin added.
[…]
Lawyer Sevgi Erarslan also tweeted that the use of the application by Soylu goes against the constitution, Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data, which was adopted during the time in office of the current Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, and the Council of Europe’s Convention No. 108 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data that Turkey also ratified during AKP rule.
[…]
The Criminal Law Academy, founded by Turkish lawyers who work in the field of criminal justice, underlined that conducting arbitrary biometric scans through the application constituted the crime of “illegally obtaining and disseminating personal data” under Article 136 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), adding that minister Soylu has no immunity for committing a crime.
I can’t 100% vouch for the channel, but on topics that I keep up on and know much better, his videos generally match what other legit sources are saying.
