I've been hearing more and more really scary shit about how Turkey is handling the aftermath of this earthquake. From strangling communications used, among other things, by people trapped to tell rescuers they're alive, to preventing the movement of people internally, a general lack of mobilization of emergency resources that were supposed to be in place and paid for by a specific tax after the last devastating quakes.

    • CarmineCatboy [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's complicated, because Erdogan has shaken hands with pretty much the entire political spectrum of Turkiye. And promptly burned bridges with them when it was useful to do so. A lot of reddit educated people think that Erdogan is just a big meanie persecuting an esoteric self support religious organization ie the gulenists. Except Gulen and Erdogan were allies and Gulen's movement was instrumental in how Erdogan captured the turkish state, subjugated the judiciary and broke down the professional bureaucracy.

      So who are the Turkish Nationalists in that situation? Is it the AKPartists who want CIA Gulen extradited and punished because of the attempts coup few years ago? Or is it the opposition, who hates Gulen even more since he pulled a Gorbachev, helped destroy the rule of law in their country, and now lives with all the rights and privileges of a wealthy Pennsylvanian? The answer is probably most both at this point.

    • CommunistBarbie [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Yeah, super weird to see one pop up here. Erdogan is anti-communist and has been extremely harsh in crushing Turkish leftists and Kurdish movements. He's also an Armenian genocide denialist...

    • CliffordBigRedDog [he/him]
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      2 years ago

      Once saw a comment here that was excusing Azerbaijan by saying that Armenia "deserved it"