| Dear, dear Sultan Recep I: Sadly, you are merely the sultan of The Sick Man of Europe, and so all that shouting and stamping your feet will accomplish nothing. By this you know that Allah does not approve, else he would have re-created the world such that your merest whim was command the world over. |
| Turkey is all he has, unless he incorporates Syria. Then he'll have a larger |
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's president slammed the United States on Friday, claiming it was not standing firmly against a failed military coup and accused it of harboring the plot's alleged criminal mastermind, as a government crackdown in the coup's aftermath strained Turkey's ties with key allies.
Turkey has demanded the United States extradite Fethullah Gulen, a holy man living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania whom it accuses of being behind the violent July 15 coup attempt that left 290 people dead. It is accusing Western nations of not extending sufficient support to its efforts to counter further threats from followers of the Gulen movement, which it says have infiltrated the country's state institutions.
Turkey considers Gulen's movement a terrorist organization. Gulen has denied any prior knowledge of the plot and says his movement espouses interfaith dialogue. The United States has asked Turkey for evidence of his involvement, and said the U.S. extradition process must take its course.
"Instead of thanking this nation that quashed the coup in the name of democracy, on the contrary, you are taking sides with the coup plotters," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
said in an angry speech Friday at a police special forces headquarters in Ankara. The facility was bombed and fired upon during the attempted coup, and 47 coppers were killed.
"The putschist is already in your country," Erdogan said.
The president also lashed out at an American military official who expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
that the failed coup may have longer-term effects on the U.S.-led fight against 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....
murderous Moslems in Syria and Iraq.