Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Turkey Blames AEI for Protests


Turkey's pro-government newspaper, Yeni Şafa, seems to suggest that the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is partly responsible for the recent protests in Turkey.

On June 15, 2013, that newspaper had a front-pager laying out a detailed report of how the Taksim Square revolts were pre-planned by neocons at AEI.  [Forbes notes that there was not a single source or quote in the article.]

That information comes as Turkey's intelligence service, the National Intelligence Service (MIT), has launched a comprehensive investigation to uncover foreign links to the protest.

Frontpage Mag says that the choice of AEI seems a bit random.  "AEI is not exactly your obvious choice for a coup plot. And [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan appeared there back in 2004."

Michael Rubin, a Resident Scholar at AEI, says that the newspaper has accused him personally of leading a cabal of former officials to plan the Istanbul unrest.

The Washington Free Beacon says that Rubin was sued by Erdogan in 2010 following the publication of a report alleging widespread financial corruption among Erdogan cronies.

The newspaper says that the plot was hatched during a secret meeting in February.  AEI's Danielle Pletka weighed in on the Turkish reports, and said that there was no meeting.

So what does AEI have to say about Turkey?  Here is what Michael Rubin said last year in a post titled "Turkey's Useful Idiots":
It doesn’t take much for Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to show his true colors. He’s been known as a man of strong opinions since his tenure as mayor of Istanbul. He has dragged a journalist to court for the crime of depicting him in a cartoon as a cat entangled in a ball of string. More Turkish journalists now sit in prison than their Chinese and Iranian counterparts. It is no wonder that Turkey now ranks below even Russia in press freedom.
In 2011 Michael Rubin said that Turkey "no longer stands for freedom."  Here is a piece that Michael Rubin wrote in May 2013 titled "The Coming Collapse of US-Turkey Relations."  Here is a 2011 piece from Michael Rubin titled "Erdogan's Turkey in Not a Friend."  Here is a piece from Michael Rubin from 2008 which says that Prime Minister Erdogan has become the "Turkish Vladimir Putin."