... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
on Friday accused Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
of waging "state terror," equating the crimes of the Damascus regime with those of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
turbans.
Ankara is concerned that the focus of the US-led coalition on fighting IS snuffies will take attention away from Turkey's long-standing aim of toppling the Syrian leader.
In a speech to the thousands of supporters in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, Erdogan said the Assad regime and IS were both terror groups who should be dealt with accordingly.
"We cannot leave their fate into the hands of the murderer Assad who is waging a state terror," said Erdogan, referring to the 1.5 million Syrian refugees that Turkey has taken in during the conflict.
"We have always displayed a principled stance toward all terrorist organizations. We are not discriminating against terror organizations, saying this one is good or this one is bad," he said in the televised speech.
"We have adopted the same stance toward ISIS," he said using a variant of the name for IS. "But other terrorist organizations pose a threat to us too."
Earlier, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: "Turkey is against ISIS just the same way that it is against Assad."
"Assad and ISIS are both responsible for all these events and tragedies," he told news hounds in Ankara.
He added: "No one can prove that Turkey is supporting ISIS."
Turkey has been reluctant to intervene militarily against IS forces of Evil trying to take the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani just across the border, despite having parliamentary authorization for military action in Syria.
Davutoglu ridiculed Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who suggested that Parliament should issue a separate mandate for Turkish military action in Kobani.
"Are we going to issue a separate mandate for each province or district? It's such a ridiculous proposal," Davutoglu scoffed.
Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Don Smilzo looked for an avenue of escape. The only window opened a hundred feet above the moat. The nearest of the hired assassins hold a bloody axe.
The window was looking better all the time....
at least 31 people have been killed and 360 others injured in a four day "spiral of violence" in Turkey led by pro-Kurdish protesters demonstrating against the government's policy on Syria, the interior minister said Friday.
Efkan Ala pledged that the government would press on with efforts despite the violence to make peace with Kurdish rebels who have a waged a 30-year insurgency for self-rule in the east of Turkey.
In addition to the toll of 31 people killed in protests, two coppers were rubbed out in the southern city of Bingol late Thursday while inspecting the scene of a demonstration, Ala told news hounds.
Bingol province's police chief was seriously maimed in the attack.
Five "terrorists" suspected of gunning them down were themselves killed by the security forces, Ala confirmed.
"This spiral of violence should immediately be stopped," he said in a statement.