Turkish Minute: [OPINION] US sanctions against the ErdoÄŸan regime must be expanded

[TomSea]

The author writes long paragraphs, I think "World News" forum is also a good place for "world editorials" when necessary, it's on topic but can always be moved. I hope that is clear.

[OPINION] US sanctions against the ErdoÄŸan regime must be expanded
Abdullah Bozkurt

Not only the average Turk but many in the Turkish government and the ruling Justice and Development Party welcome targeted sanctions by the United States that are aimed at delegitimizing hard-core elements within the government of President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, even if they are afraid of freely speaking their mind because of intimidation and the risk of imprisonment.

The key in securing the desired result from targeted sanctions is to calibrate them carefully and impose them in the right way so that they will directly hit people who are considered responsible for the major backslide in Turkey’s democracy. Those who still present huge obstacles to putting the country on the right track must be singled out in order to make room for reasonable policy makers to maneuver. An additional goal is to also force a change in the destabilizing behavior of the current government and minimize damage to the nation while encouraging those who are in power or in opposition but want to work with allies, partners and the international community as rational nation-state actors.

Turkish politics entered into a new phase after the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action on Aug. 1 targeting Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül and Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu for their apparent role in serious human rights violations, including the lengthy imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson, in line with the Magnitsky Act, which aims to punish these people by blocking their assets. The move, unprecedented in the history of US-Turkish relations, carries significant weight and symbolizes how troubled relations between the two allies took a nosedive under hostile policies pursued by an Islamist Turkish president who is bent on destroying the nation’s hard-fought accomplishments in democracy and national security.

Read more at: https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/08/02/opinion-us-sanctions-against-the-erdogan-regime-must-be-expanded/

[TomSea]

Whatever one's personal views are, to do this for a Pastor is certainly something I have never seen before in my life; though, there is bound to be something similar, somewhere in our history. The administration seems to be sticking their neck out some for Pastor Brunson.  This really seems to be a bold move and to impose sanctions for the freedom of an American citizen, for a Christian.

[Absalom]

Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, a Prussian trained Ottoman Commander
and their Savior at Gallipoli in 1915, showed Turkey a path out of
its dark abyss by dissolving Sharia Law and eradicating Islam from
affairs of state and education.
Since Erdogan seeks to return then to the darkness, he needs to be
forcibly removed, for the sake of the people, w/finality and alacrity.