A day after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, Democratic Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has posted a video on Twitter in which she has ripped into Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Gabbard has slammed Erdogan calling him “a radical Islamist megalomaniac” who has supported ISIS. Hitting out at Erdogan, Gabbard has alleged that Erdogan has been “slaughtering the Syrian Kurds and he’s using terrorists from ISIS and al-Qaeda as his militia.” She has also accused the Turkish President of “helping ISIS/AQ for years.” She also reiterated that the Islamic State as a result of the external funding and weaponized push to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria.
Tulsi Gabbard said, “Erdogan has been helping ISIS/AQ for years. He has denied this but is now openly using militias of “former” ISIS/AQ terrorists, exposing him for what he really is: a radical Islamist megalomaniac who wants to establish a caliphate with himself as the Caliph — the supreme ruler.”
Erdogan has been helping ISIS/AQ for years. He has denied this but is now openly using militias of "former" ISIS/AQ terrorists, exposing him for what he really is: a radical Islamist megalomaniac who wants to establish a caliphate with himself as the Caliph — the supreme ruler. pic.twitter.com/AQ5zb6Hp08
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 30, 2019
The Turkish President has of late come under severe criticism for his misadventures in Syria. After launching a military offensive against the Kurds in Northern Syria, many countries around the world have slammed the country’s operations and called upon Turkey to cease its operations. The European Union and the USA issued firm signals against the continuation of military operations in the region which could not only lead to regional instability but are also being seen as Turkeys attempts to subjugate Kurdish ethnic minorities in the region and revive the Islamic State terrorists.
Major partners of the European Union, Germany and France have expressed their concern and said that they would not export any more weapons to Turkey that could be deployed in the country’s military offensive in Syria.
Turkey’s military action has created a fresh humanitarian crisis in Syria as well. With reports suggesting the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stating, “Since Wednesday, more than 60,000 people have fled the border areas. Therefore, Turkey’s act of invading North-east Syria and military action against the Kurdish fighters clearly leaves lakhs of Syrians at the risk of another round of displacement.”
A High Representative also issued a statement on behalf of the European Union stating, “The EU calls upon Turkey to cease the unilateral military action. Renewed armed hostilities in the north-east will further undermine the stability of the whole region, exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements.”
US President Donald Trump wrote an extraordinary letter and threatened Erdogan saying, “Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy and I will.”
“History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane, it will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” he further wrote.
The letter was written in a classic Donald Trump-style where he went on the offensive from the beginning by cutting right to the chase.
On 15 October, Trump informed that he had signed an executive order sanctioning Turkish officials (Defense Minister, Interior Minister and Energy Minister), hiking tariffs on Turkish steel up to 50% and “immediately” halting trade negotiations with the country, which Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Monday.
Turkey has also been under fire from India majorly for its support of terror-sponsoring regime in Pakistan and also now after launching military strikes in North-Eastern Syria. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, “We are deeply concerned at the unilateral military offensive by Turkey in north-east Syria.”
Turkey has been treading a dangerous path towards totalitarianism under President Erdogan. After winning re-elections that guarantee him power till at least 2023, Erdogan had said, “The winner is our democracy. The winner is service-based politics. The winner is superiority of national will. The winner is Turkey. The winner is the Turkish nation. The winner is all the oppressed in our region. The winner is all the oppressed in the world.”
It is rather ironic that Erdogan would mention “the oppressed”, let alone “the oppressed in our region”. The Kurds are an ethnic group that constitute a resounding 18% of Turkish population, and number an approximately 80 million people today. The Kurds have been the victims of systematic oppression at the hands of the Turkish state machinery for decades, which only further worsened after Erdogan came to power. Their only representative political party, the Kurdish Worker’s Party, or the PKK, have been outlawed since the 1980s, and Erdogan has only intensified the crackdown on Kurdish political representation in Turkey.
Tulsi Gabbard has been running for the US Presidential elections and has come under repeated attacks from the left-liberals. In July this year, taking the fight against inherent liberal bias of tech companies like Google, Facebook and others, Tulsi Gabbard through her campaign committee Tulsi Now Inc sued tech giant Google for $50 million and accused the California based company for suspending her advertising account in the hours after last month’s debate and alleged it was trying to ‘silence her’.
In the lawsuit filed, the campaign committee alleged that Google violated the Hawaii congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard’s right to free speech.