Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spent more than 12-years lobbying for his nation to be granted membership in NATO, but his abysmal and deteriorating record on human rights and more recently-adopted positions such as the revival of a death penalty virtually assure it won’t happen. While European leaders among others have warned Erdogan that his policies are shooting Turkey in the foot on the issue of NATO membership, until now the bombastic president has brushed off the admonitions as though he knows something the others don’t. On Sunday, the president addressed his parliament on the issue of the stalled talks in a manner many categorized as “pure Erdogan” telling lawmakers that, “We will not be the side which gives up. To tell the truth, we don’t need EU membership anymore.” Academics, military figures and journalists have been jailed in great numbers since a failed anti-Erdogan coup that became the casus belli for his war against opponents. Although many believed his fixation with NATO membership would bring him back to reason, his human rights offenses continued to grow. Erdogan continues to bear grudges against the European Union and the United States for what he believes is their unjustified refusal to turn over nationals the president accuses of “terrorism.” American justice, for instance, will not allow the extradition of the man who lives in exile in Pennsylvania who Erdogan blames for the entire coup for lack of evidence.
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