1, April 2017 Rex
Tillerson
It was profoundly disturbing to witness Rex Tillerson’s effusive
greeting and photo op with Turkey’s leader, President Erdogan. Perhaps, Tillerson is
unaware that Turkey is rapidly sliding towards a dictatorship. He failed to
raise US concerns over mass arrests of protestors, a purge of political
opponents and a fierce crackdown on the news media. President Trump has shown
an unhealthy fascination for dictators – Egypt’s General Sisi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the gun-toting
Duterte of the Philippines. Turkey is set to hold a referendum next month which
may extend Erdogan’s presidency to 2029.
Currently, Turkey is waging a brutal war with the Kurdish
minority which comprises twenty five percent of the population. Following the
unsuccessful coup, Turkey has dismissed and imprisoned 130,000 people from
their jobs. Over 6,300 academics have been fired and fifteen universities have
been closed. A staggering number of journalists, fifty percent of the world’s
total, are languishing in jail in Turkey.
If Trump is serious about his promise to crush and defeat ISIS
he needs to push for greater autonomy to the Kurdish minority. Tragically, the
Kurds are fighting on three fronts, Assad’s Syrian fighters, ISIS and Turkey.
Tillerson needs to resist Trump’s efforts to gut the State
Department. Soft power is far more effective than relying on the barrel of a
gun. Tillerson may be an expert on
extracting oil from the ground but he is clearly a lightweight in statecraft.
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