Biden Takes Apology Tour to Turkish, Muslim Brotherhood-Loving Erdogan
The Obama administration’s years-long international apology tour continues with its latest stop in Turkey, where Vice President Joe Biden expressed regret to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that he couldn’t have come to the Islamist strongman’s aid sooner after the failed coup last month.
“The American people stand with you; we’ve stood with you from the beginning,” Biden said at a joint news conference the nation’s capital, Ankara. Barack Obama was one of the first people to call. But I do apologize, I wish I could have been here earlier.”
.@VP Biden apologizes to Turkish Pres. Erdogan: "I wish I could have been here earlier" following coup attempt. https://t.co/PUWT508sAW
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 24, 2016
This is, of course, the same Islamist strongman who’s imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens during the country’s political unrest and has been accused of a laundry list of human rights violations, including torture, a crackdown on freedom of the press, and the subversion of the rule of law.
As expected, Biden avoided public criticism of the recent purge, in which The New York Times reported almost 9,000 police officers have been fired, a third of the country’s private school teachers have been suspended, and over 10,000 soldiers have been detained.
Rather, during his time in the Middle Eastern nation, “Biden [was] expected to emphasize to Turkish officials that the purge was damaging perceptions of Turkey within the U.S., Europe and the business community,” an unnamed U.S. official told Bloomberg News.
This meeting-and-apology move is obviously an attempt to keep a finally-engaged Turkey involved in regional efforts against ISIS, which did far more harm than good as the insurgency gained ground after its precipitous rise to power in 2014.
As I have previously written:
Erdogan’s tenure in control of the country began in 2003, when he became prime minister and has continued through his assumption of the office of president in 2014. During this time, he has gained a reputation as a strongman politician who is cozy with the Muslim Brotherhood, and bent on Islamizing Turkey. Additionally, he’s been roundly criticized for his compliance in the rise of ISIS, stemming from a willful blindness to the insurgent threat. In fact, it’s almost impossible to imagine a rise of ISIS without a poorly-managed Turkish border allowing both the influx of foreign fighters to enter the so-called caliphate, while allowing smuggled oil and antiquities to come out.
In fact, Biden’s last public apology to his “old friend” was in direct connection to Turkey’s complacency in regard to ISIS’ rise. In 2014, he called Erdogan and publicly apologized for implying that the Turkish president’s inactions were partially responsible for strengthening the jihadist organization’s presence in the region.
Nonetheless, the Obama administration is making sure that it’s on record propping up the Muslim Brotherhood-loving, ISIS-complicit strongman, who will be more than emboldened to continue turning his country into a Sunni version of Iran.
This, of course, all lines up with the Obama administration’s past. It offered outspoken support for former Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi (a former Muslim Brotherhood member) during the North African country’s 2013 revolution and other policies that abetted the growth of the jihadist presence in other areas of the continent. And all that is not to mention former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s abysmal China policy that signaled to the country’s communist government that its egregious religious freedom violations would go unchallenged.
But that’s the Obama Doctrine for you. (For more from the author of “Biden Takes Apology Tour to Turkish, Muslim Brotherhood-Loving Erdogan” please click HERE)
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