Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Erdoğan cannot take criticism -- once again

After taking time from his prime ministerial agenda to engage in a debate with the American novelist Paul Auster recently, yesterday Erdoğan attacked Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi; hence, CHP), the second largest party in Turkey, for writing an opinion piece in Washington Post and thus allegedly engaging in an international smear campaign.

Erdoğan argued that the actual intention of Kılıçdaroğlu was to discredit the court case into the purported Ergenekon network, which allegedly sought to foment chaos and pave the way for a military coup. To read more, visit Hurriyet Daily News.

As is well known, any opposition to the government in Turkey is portrayed by the government as part of the Ergenekon network -- on Monday, the vice president of the government party went as far as implicating Paul Auster in the Ergenekon network, also claiming that there is a global alliance between the neocons and the Ergenekon network.