For years I have been of the opinion that Erdogan has caused more internal damage to Turkey than he has externally. I find a lot of what he is blamed for externally to be untrue and the actual damage he has caused to be ignored by the vast majority in the West. Case in point like you said, the coup, the educations system, the financial corruptions..
But blaming him for NATO's lost support, blaming him for the Syrian war. These are not things I would blame him for.
He is accused of ethnic cleansing and doing unspeakable things to Kurds;
1. Under his watch the leader of PKK was given a voice for the first time since capture.
2. First attempt at peace with PKK was under his watch, in fact the Kurds could have chief's of Police and military officers fired for doing their job between 2012-2015, because of Erdogan's peace process.
3. He supported YPG in Syria between 2014-2015.
4. He has given more recognition to KRG than any other Turkish politician, while taking some of it away also.
5. Kurdish became common under his leadership. Kurdish education, Kurdish TV became available. This might be seen as a small deal, but he was the first.
6. He has support from the majority of Kurdish clans.
7. He let YPG grow under his watch, no administration before him would have.
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1. He was championed as a bringer of democracy for a decade in the West.
2. When the military tried to pipe down Erdogan in the mid 2000's, this faced near condemnation in the West. EU Parliament told the mil to not intervene, the US "agreed with the EU statement". A coup could have very well happened in 2003-2004, but I believe it would have been met with sanctions, embargo's etc.
3. Erdogan was the biggest vocal supporter for Turkey to join the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
4. When thousands were purged as "ultra secularists" (including myself for a short time) the EU did not say a word, but they said everything they could in 2016. When Erdogan purged us in 2007-2011, there was no legal, vocal, verbal or any help from the West, but they did a complete 180 in 2016.
EU accepted political asylum of people who are known to participate in the Turkish purges of 2007-2011, simply because of their recent stance on being anti Erdo post 2016. Former Turkish NCO's who interrogated a female Turkish Air Force LT, falsely accusing her of group sex with officers, leading her to commit suicide have Belgian political asylum at the moment. Because Erdogan. Erdogan is but an excuse to show what everybody really thinks about Turks.
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At this point, even if Erdogan goes, the situation will continue to deteriorate. The Kemalists want to pound the Kurds harder, the traditional military officers like Ismail Metin Temel, who wanted to get rid of Assad in 2018 had to be sent to Ankara because Erdogan did not want to upset anybody. Nobody wants NATO long term, don't want to waste resources on its operations, exercises. No politician, no officer wants anymore Turkish money landing in NATO in the next few years, They would rather help Ukraine finance joint projects and use the engines, munitions etc on whatever targets they want, than to keep thinking about EU/NATO arms embargos, limits etc.
US/NATO chose to support Kurds over Turkish military intervention in Syria.
Turkey was accused of letting refugees flow to Europe for years, and vice versa for letting militants into Syria for years. Even though it was revealed Turkey arrested and deported everyone that EU/US asked Turkey to detain. But all of it was ignored, because "Kurds".
Turkey was accused of supporting ISIS, despite leading the single largest NATO country operation against ISIS. Have you seen anything documented on the field in relation to Turkey and ISIS? Because I can show you documented footage of US officers posing with legitimate PKK members that have been on Turkey's wanted list since before the Syrian civil war.
NATO supported the YPG/SDF despite such a heavy PKK influence, they gave high ranking positions to known PKK members who are even known to the US and EU as big time drug smugglers that financed PKK activities in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Mazloum Kobane or whats his face, Sahin Cilo is a well known big time drug financier of PKK, now he is a "General" with no military education, and a blue tick on twitter.
Now show me, who Turkey has equipped, armed, trained and used which led to the harm of NATO personnel? Because I can show you US/NATO equipment given to YPG, along with uniforms and personnel caught in the act of attacking Turkish assets.
I am not saying Turkey is not at fault. There were times where Turkey was passive and had incorrect, but this harmed Turkey more than it harmed everybody else. Turkish activities in Syria since 2016 is a reaction to the mistakes prior to 2016.
You talk a lot for a guy who hails from the country who sent troops to defend the official government in Mali, while supporting the guy who is trying to bring down the official government in Libya. Quite far away from home too, one must say. But that's France though, isn't it? Messing up wherever they go.
