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[XXSockXX]

Yeah, I think calling him an outright "fanatic" is inflating the term a bit, I mean he is authoritarian and fundamentalist, but he is no Assad or Gaddafi, more like a wannabe-Putin (I think ten-thousands of dead people in Syria and Lybia would agree). He still is the most popular politician in Turkey and Turkey is a democratic country (with some deficits by our standards, but still).
Here we see the population acting as "checks and balances" and preventing a development away from democracy, a function that in the past was filled by the kemalist military via coups (which are not great by our standards either).
It's hard to predict at the moment if these protests will force him to resign, but they will certainly force him to listen to the people and keep things democratic.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I dunno, he seemed like a pretty decent guy just by running over the Wikipedia pages. Defending atheist rights, economic reforms, investing in education, attempted to solving the Cypriotic problems, ...

Difference between talking and acting, apparently.

Talk is cheap. At the end of the day, Erdogan was elected by an Islamist political party. The AKP can deny it all they want, but their actions show it.

Also got a ton of awards

Not necessarily good awards. These ones are pretty telling:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1 June 2006: Russian state medal from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.[139]
8 August 2006: Caspian Energy Integration Award from the Caspian Integration Business Club.[140]
26 October 2009: Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award in Pakistan.[151]
12 January 2010: King Faisal International Prize for "service to Islam" from the King Faisal Foundation.[153]
29 June 2010: 2010 World Family Award from the World Family Organization which operates under the umbrella of the United Nations.[159]
25 November 2010: "Leader of the Year" award presented by the Union of Arab Banks in Lebanon.[161]
29 November 2010: guest of honor at the 3rd EU-Africa Summit in Libya and Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights.[162]
11 January 2011: "Outstanding Personality in the Islamic World Award" of the Sheikh Fahad al-Ahmad International Award for Charity in Kuwait.[162]
25 October 2011: Palestinian International Award for Excellence and Creativity (PIA) 2011 for his support to the Palestinian people and cause.[164]

[10ebbor10]

He was banned from office and sentenced to a ten-month prison term for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt in 1997. After less than four months in prison, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2001

Just to show that the previous parties weren't all that clean either.

He changed to constitution to allow the president to be elected by popular vote (Approved by referendum IIRC, because the opposition boycotted the parliament). Also did numerous other reforms, including economical and sociopolitical reforms.

Just to note that you don't have to brand him as the obvious evil mad guy. The situation is way more complex than that.

[GlyphGryph]

Talk is cheap. At the end of the day, Erdogan was elected by an Islamist political party. The AKP can deny it all they want, but their actions show it.

Now, now, that's not quite right. For one, he never got the support of the majority of voters, and what did support he got was thanks in large part to the governments making success in society and feeding a person's family reliant on voting for him. Most of his voters weren't Islamist, so he wasn't elected by Islamists.

It's just that most of his voters weren't supporters either.

He seems like a standard revolutionary who advocates against the system until they get into power and realize they really, really like being on top, and plan on staying there.

[10ebbor10]

Just as a note, but with 327 out of 550 seats, the AKP has a majority in parliament.

Also interesting of note, of all parties, the AKP has the most female parliament members (Percentage and total)

[Willfor]

I think trying to convince an admitted advocate for the violent destruction of all religion that this man is not completely evil is a bit of a lost cause, personally. Though his voiced opinions may have changed since the last time I had a conversation with him on this topic.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think trying to convince an admitted advocate for the violent destruction of all religion that this man is not completely evil is a bit of a lost cause, personally. Though his voiced opinions may have changed since the last time I had a conversation with him on this topic.

If you're talking about me, I don't know where you're getting that. I don't advocate the violent destruction of religion. I don't even really advocate the destruction of religion, I just think it's going to start dying out in the coming years as it becomes ever-less relevant to society and that this will be a good thing.

[Willfor]

I think trying to convince an admitted advocate for the violent destruction of all religion that this man is not completely evil is a bit of a lost cause, personally. Though his voiced opinions may have changed since the last time I had a conversation with him on this topic.

If you're talking about me, I don't know where you're getting that. I don't advocate the violent destruction of religion. I don't even really advocate the destruction of religion, I just think it's going to start dying out in the coming years as it becomes ever-less relevant to society and that this will be a good thing.

Alright, then your opinion has changed since we had this conversation two years ago. Good to know! I'll stop feeling threatened when you're in a thread with me now.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

The most outspoken critics of Tayyip were Islamists [last I knew]. You know, ousting the extremists in the military so they don't coup back to Islamic Republic status. So this line of conversation is all a bit confusing to me.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think trying to convince an admitted advocate for the violent destruction of all religion that this man is not completely evil is a bit of a lost cause, personally. Though his voiced opinions may have changed since the last time I had a conversation with him on this topic.

If you're talking about me, I don't know where you're getting that. I don't advocate the violent destruction of religion. I don't even really advocate the destruction of religion, I just think it's going to start dying out in the coming years as it becomes ever-less relevant to society and that this will be a good thing.

Alright, then your opinion has changed since we had this conversation two years ago. Good to know! I'll stop feeling threatened when you're in a thread with me now.

My opinion hasn't changed. I never advocated what you say I was advocating.

[Willfor]

I think trying to convince an admitted advocate for the violent destruction of all religion that this man is not completely evil is a bit of a lost cause, personally. Though his voiced opinions may have changed since the last time I had a conversation with him on this topic.

If you're talking about me, I don't know where you're getting that. I don't advocate the violent destruction of religion. I don't even really advocate the destruction of religion, I just think it's going to start dying out in the coming years as it becomes ever-less relevant to society and that this will be a good thing.

Alright, then your opinion has changed since we had this conversation two years ago. Good to know! I'll stop feeling threatened when you're in a thread with me now.

My opinion hasn't changed. I never advocated what you say I was advocating.

No, I quite clearly remember you mentioning it in one of the religion threads, just let me go back and ..

16497 posts

Ughhhhhhhhhhh...........

Alright, I'll let you have this one, I have to go set up the studio in an hour.

[Nadaka]

I believe I know the conversation you are referring to Willfor. There was someone advocating concentration camps for the religious, but it wasn't MSH. Who it was? I don't recall. But it put me in the undesirable position of defending religion for a short time.

[GlyphGryph]

Just as a note, but with 327 out of 550 seats, the AKP has a majority in parliament.
Also interesting of note, of all parties, the AKP has the most female parliament members (Percentage and total)

Which makes their relative paucity of genuine support all the more concerning, I would think. 39%/49% of the vote (local/national) hardly seems like it should entail getting 60% of the government. And this is with the government essentially buying and coercing votes.

Not that this particular quirk, where groups end up running countries despite the majority of the population being opposed to them, is somehow limited to Turkey. The vote-buying is obviously a bit more of a concern.

[10ebbor10]

Yup, rampant clientelism and corruption is what caused most of Greece's problems. Not that it will get that bad in Turkey, but well...

[Owlbread]

What's people's opinions on Deep State involvement in the current crisis in Turkey?