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President Erdogan seems to have gone on authoritarian streak: Analyst

Tuesday, 07 June 2016 1:06 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 07 June 2016 1:06 PM ]

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ian Williams, a senior analyst with the Foreign Policy in Focus from New York, about row between Turkey and Germany over German Parliament’s criticism of the killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It’s natural for Erdogan to be mad, I’m not justifying his anger but to lash out by saying they should go through blood test to make sure what kind of Turks they are, maybe that drew the ire of the German chancellor along with the parliament.

Williams: It would be rather silly because not many modern day Turks would actually pass a blood test to central Asian origins since most of them are descendants of Greeks and Anatolians who were already there when the Ottoman Turks turned up. It shows that Erdogan is really beginning to lose it. I’ve never quite understood why the Turks don’t say: “Yes, there were mass murders. It was done by Ottoman regime and that’s got nothing to do with us.” Ironically much of the killing of the Armenians at the time was done by the Kurdish tribes in the vicinity.

So it’s not a Turkish problem, it’s a Kurdish one even if the Ottoman regime did actually foment it. The whole issue is the Turks are falling into a trap that the Armenians have dug for them by fighting over it. They will be much better off apologizing for what happened, which was a real genuine massacre whether it’s genocide or not is irrelevant. It was a mass murder when it broke every law of humanity then and now.

Press TV: I’m guessing that if I’m Erdogan and I want to draw the anger of any European country Germany wouldn’t be the country to do it to if they want to join the EU.

Williams: Erdogan was actually very sensible when he first took it over, he was prepared to make a break with the previous military impregnated regimes and he was making overtures to the Kurds, he was even beginning to make up to the Greek Orthodox in Turkey. But since then, for the last few years, he’s gone on an authoritarian streak that seems to brook no opposition whatsoever. The idea of prosecuting people for making fun of him in Germany it’s ... something from a banana republic not a modern European republic.

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