Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has engineered the path to his virtual one-man rule of Turkey.
A very small majority of Turkish voters approved a controversial referendum on Sunday to amend the country’s constitution, converting the largely ceremonial post of president into a highly powerful chief executive. The amendments eliminate the post of prime minister and confer vast new powers on the president to issue decrees as law and make judicial appointments.
The changes will obliterate any semblance of a democratic republic with checks and balances among independent branches of government. They will take effect with the 2019 presidential election. Erdogan is expected to run for the newly empowered presidential office, which he could hold onto for at least two terms through 2029.
The constitutional amendments will simply formalize the creeping autocracy and Islamization that Erdogan has imposed on the Turkish people during his years as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, and while serving in the supposedly ceremonial post of president since 2014. The current prime minister is an Erdogan loyalist.
Turkey has been operating under emergency rule since last summer’s failed coup. A vast purge of government workers suspected of opposing the government took place, accompanied by mass arrests. The alleged dissenters removed from their positions cut across academia, the police, the military, prosecutors and the judiciary. Turkey also accounted for nearly a third of the global total of journalists arrested world-wide in 2016. More than 100 news outlets were closed down.
In the run-up to the referendum, opponents were physically assaulted and intimidated. Authorities prevented some opposition rallies from taking place. Opponents of the referendum have charged that the referendum results were fraudulent, complaining of last-minute changes in the rules that allowed ballots to be counted without the legally required official stamp.
Erdogan scolded opponents for challenging the results, declaring their efforts would be "in vain." He indicated an interest in restoring the death penalty, which would end Turkey’s ability to become a member of the European Union. As if on cue, Erdogan supporters assaulted some Turks who dared to protest what the opponents considered to be a fraudulent referendum vote, leading towards a dictatorship.
Erdogan’s opponents have good reason to be worried. The referendum is virtually the last nail in the coffin of a pluralistic democratic state with even a modicum of checks and balances.
Last month, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (known as the Venice Commission) issued a critical report on Turkey’s proposed constitutional amendments. The Venice Commission’s analysis found that the amendments would result in “an excessive concentration of executive power in the hands of the President and the weakening of parliamentary control of that power.”
The Venice Commission also questioned the process under which the referendum took place: “The whole process of parliamentary adoption and submission for approval by referendum of the constitutional amendments is taking place during the state of emergency, when very substantive limitations on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are in force.”
Taken together, the Venice Commission report concluded that the scope of powers conferred on the newly empowered presidency by the proposed constitutional amendments carries the “intrinsic danger of degenerating into an authoritarian rule.” It viewed the proposed amendments as “a dangerous step backwards” for Turkey.
Yesterday, Turkey voted to make Hitler’s Mini-Me — Tayyip Erdogan – the de facto dictator.
I have to say, that’s irony for you. Using the democratic process to effectively strip yourself of an semblance of democracy.
All it took was a razor-thin majority to deprive the Turkish people of their own voice in government.
Large segments of Turkey were vehemently opposed to this referendum. But because a slim majority voted yes, those opposed were rendered powerless.
In other words, making Erdogan the de facto dictator won the popular vote.
So now do you understand why we have an Electoral College?
Many of those who support this move toward dictatorship want Erdogan to have all power in order to avoid “deadlock” in government.
In America we call deadlock “checks and balances” – there to prevent one person from doing what Erdogan has done.
In other words, “deadlock” is part of the democratic process.
And with this referendum, Erdogan has the ability to remain in power for the next twelve years.
Listen, the greatest threat to Europe right now is not Vladimir Putin.
Europe’s greatest threat is an all-powerful Tayyip Erdogan.
This man has already threatened to unleash a flood of Muslim “migrants” into Europe.
And with this victory, Erdogan is already saying he plans to review the deal he made with the EU to curb the flow of Muslim “refugees” and “migrants” into Europe.
Something tells me with this “New Turkey,” things in Europe are about to go from bad to worse.
Just when a few hours had passed without any escalation around the Korean Peninsula, The Guardian reports that the US military is considering shooting down North Korean missile tests as a show of strength to Pyongyang according to two sources briefed on the plans.
As the USS Carl Vinson heads towards the peninsula, along with two oither carriers, the Pentagon is looking for ways short of war to pressure North Korea into denuclearization, particularly if Pyongyang goes forward with an anticipated sixth nuclear test.
The option, which defense secretary James Mattis has briefed to Congress, has, as The Guardian reports, yet to mature into a decision by the military to intercept a tested missile. One US official said the prospective shoot-down strategy would be aimed at occurring after a nuclear test, with the objective being to signal Pyongyang that the US can impose military consequences for a transgression Donald Trump has said is unacceptable. But experts and former officials said shooting down a North Korean missile during a test risks an escalation that Washington may not be able to control, one that risks war on the Korean peninsula and potentially devastating consequences to allies South Korea and Japan.
The Deep State has yet to exert significant influence in China and this bothers them. This is why they are now, according to Australian journalist John Pilger, trying to push Australia, a nation which has no contemporary enemies into provoking a nuclear armed China. The justification? The building of Chinese airstrips on disputed reefs and islets in the South China Sea.
In the following video, Right Wing News looks at how and why Australia might be provoked into starting a dispute with China. The airstrips in the South China Sea are of course, extremely minor considering the fact that the US has 400 military bases surrounding China, a ‘perfect noose’, and is about to conduct war games with Australia. The war games scenario? An air-sea battle plan for a war with China. Can you imagine what would the reaction be if there were 400 Chinese military bases surrounding the United States?
Australian journalist John Pilger has warned that the American ‘Deep State’ are pushing for Australia to start a war with China as part of its New World Order agenda.
According to Pilger, the U.S. elite are so desperate to maintain their stronghold over the world, that they are pushing their Australian cousins to start a military conflict with neighboring China in order to force Australia into choosing a side – thus strengthening the globalist alliance.
Australia in the Twenty-first Century has no enemies. Not even a melancholy colonial imagination that conjured Asia falling down on us as if by the force of gravity can conjure a single contemporary enemy. No one wants to bomb or occupy Australia. Well, not yet.
As Australian political, military and intelligence establishments are integrated into the war plans of a growing American obsession — the shift of trading, banking and development power to the east — Australia is making an enemy it never bargained for. A frontline has already been marked at Pine Gap, the spy base the CIA set up near Alice Springs in the 1960s, which targets America’s enemies, beckoning, of course, massive retaliation.
Last October, the opposition Labor Party’s defense spokesman, Richard Marles, delighted the U.S. admirals and generals at a conference in Hawaii by demanding that Australian naval commanders should have the authority to provoke nuclear-armed China in the disputed South China Sea.
This view of Australia’s region is shrouded by silence. Dissenters are few, or frightened. Anti-China witchhunts are not uncommon. Indeed, who, apart from former Prime Minister Paul Keating, speaks out with an unambiguous warning? Who tells Australians that, in response to the “noose” around it, China has almost certainly increased its nuclear weapons posture from low alert to high alert?
Karen Hinks had spent approximately a year training women of color to run for office in Orange County, California, when President Donald Trump was
During her training sessions, she saw that Muslims were especially underrepresented in area politics. Now her organization is preparing to launch training sessions to provide the county’s Muslims the tools to run for local political office.
“There are no Muslim women who have ever been elected to office [in Orange County],” Hinks told NBC News. “That then led us to approach the leadership of the mosques in Orange County to say, ‘We want to do a training with Muslim Americans — what do you think the interest is going to be?’ And they were all for the idea.”
Starting April 15, Hinks’ organization, “WELead OC” and Rima Nashashibi, former vice chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, are scheduled to hold a five-week Muslim candidate training program to teach aspiring politicians — both women and men — about fundraising, field operations, social media, messaging, communications, and volunteer recruitment.
The goal, said Hinks, is to create a “pipeline” for Muslims to enter politics ahead of the 2018 and 2020 elections at a time when political engagement in the Orange County Muslim community is on the rise.
“The more Muslims we see in elected office, the more it boosts our community’s confidence, and it’s a great way to undermine those who are spreading hate and a racist agenda,” Rashad al-Dabbagh, founder and executive director of the Orange County-based Arab American Civic Council, told NBC News.”We love our allies and our partners in other communities, but if Muslims want to prosper and be seen as equals, they have to step up and make a difference themselves.”
But al-Dabbagh said that Islamophobia remains a big hurdle.
“We witnessed sometimes Muslim campaigns get targeted just because of their religion or ethnicity, and that they get accused of the nastiest things,” he said. “Some people don’t feel comfortable running because of how viciously they can be attacked by their opponents. Not a lot of people are willing to go through it.”
The chief of a Christian ministry that works underground because of its outreach into Muslim-dominant communities in the Middle East is reporting a startling claim – his rescue from Islamic “militants” by a pride of lions.
Pastor Paul Ciniraj is the director of Bibles for Mideast, which delivers Bibles, preaches the Gospel and plants house churches in the strife-torn region. He says, while Islam remains dominant, “thousands upon thousands of people now secretly believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior.”
House churches the group establishes are under the banner of the nondenominational Assembly of Loving God Church. A convert from Islam, pastor Paul founded the work some four decades ago and has survived a battle with leukemia. A nine-member board of directors governs the ministry.
In a new report he delivered this week to WND, he says he was recovering from injuries he received in an attack by Islamic jihadists when the rescue occurred.
It was Easter Sunday, and he was recovering in the home of friends in a forested area near where his group has been working.
“Suddenly, a group of militants reached the house, armed with steel bars and other weapons,” he reported to WND.
In the home with him were others, including a woman aged 80, several children under the age of 4 and a woman seven months pregnant.
“Losing all hope, we thought for sure this was our last day,” he said.
But while the group was praying, he reported a strange occurrence.
“Completely unexpectedly, a lion ran from the forest, leapt toward the militants, and seized one by the neck. When other combatants tried to attack the lion, two other lions bounded toward them. The terrified militants fled the site, and the lions left us completely alone,” he said.
“Equally astonishing, records show no lions are supposed to live in that forest,” he said.
He reported he had been approaching the closing of a 21-day period of fasting and prayer.
“As that drew to a close, more than 3,000 former Muslims were baptized in many of our churches in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The Lord enabled me to baptize many people during this time,” he said.
But while he was at one of the church locations, “militants began stoning me and our group.
“My head was severely injured and bloodied, and a number of others sustained injuries as well,” he said.
He was hospitalized, but he feared for his health and life there, so he went to the forest home of a local pastor, he said.
WND reported in February on another unusual development the Christians in the ministry reported.
Bibles for Mideast at that time said Muslims who carried out forced female genital mutilation on a Christian teen in Northern Africa were reporting being tormented by visions of blood after the near-fatal attack.
WND reported a 14-year-old girl in the undisclosed country had been left in a coma after being attacked and mutilated by Muslims upset with her conversion to Christianity.
After at least two physicians had declared her dead, she stunned doctors and hospital workers by getting up from her bed and going home.
After local physicians had given up and declared her dead, she suddenly sat up.
The girl said her soul “left my body and I was dead.”
“Angels came to receive me to heaven. But Jesus appeared before me and said, ‘I cannot turn back from the prayers of my children. My eyes are upon my children and ears are open to their prayer. So I give you your life back, for the issues of death belong to me. You go, and be my witness.’ Then he put his face right against and right into mine. He breathed into my nostrils, and my soul went in. Then he moved his nail-scarred hands over my body and healed me completely!”
The ministry learned of the circumstances when the attackers visited Lydia and her father, pleading for help.
“The visitors explained that for the last three days and nights, all of the women who had been involved in the procedure seemed to have gone mad. Some shrieked that they saw blood everywhere, even when sitting alone. Attempting to prepare meals, they would scream, again seeing blood, and throw the food out. Given water, they would do the same. Knives in hand, some were approaching children, explaining the youngsters’ need for circumcision, and promising to do it carefully this time,” the ministry reported.
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