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Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Actual Dictatorship

Well, that's just great:

The major takeaway of this election is that Erdogan is now in possession of extremely expanded presidential powers. During his time in office, he has engineered constitutional amendments to give him one of the most powerful presidencies in modern Turkish history. And though in theory there are still some internal checks on his power, in practice little can be done to block his agenda and that of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Among other things, Erdogan now has the power to rule by decree, appoint Cabinet members, write Turkey's budget and appoint judges — all without parliamentary approval.

In contrast to the belief of  people here who claim Trump is building a dictatorship one Tweet at a time (yes, their beliefs are idiotic), Erdogan actually achieved that scope of power.

So what does NATO do? Democracy and rule of law were required to join NATO after the Cold War.

Will loss of democracy and rule of law be a trigger for expulsion?

I'd say quietly reducing intelligence and contingency plan information would be prudent.