Turkey descends into dictatorship

Burham Sonmez at The Guardian writes:

The government has been using the attempted coup on 15 July as an excuse to silence anyone who is critical of the ruling AKP party. The ongoing state of emergency has granted the government extraordinary powers: the European convention of human rights has been temporarily suspended and the period in which suspects can be detained has been extended to 30 days. The authorities have arrested 37,000 people, including 150 journalists and writers. They have closed down more than 200 media outlets and publishing houses, more than 100 universities and hospitals, and expelled 100,000 teachers, academics and civil servants.

It is not a purge of those involved in the coup, which seemed to be around a dozen officers. It is a purge of anyone who doesn’t support Erdogan and the Government.

Turkey was once a shining light is the Muslim world. A reasonably peaceful democratic secular Musliam majority country that was a reliable NATO ally.

But then an Islamist got elected President and started working to undermine everything that made Turkey great, so he could retain power.