Turkey, already a secular democracy in danger under the thumb of President Erdoğan, is now reported to have suffered terror attacks. From CNN:
Twenty-nine people, mostly police officers, were killed and 166 wounded in Saturday’s twin bombings in Istanbul, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said in a press conference Sunday.
The explosions, one large blast followed by a smaller one, occurred about 11 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) after a heavily attended football game at Besiktas Vodafone Arena.
According to Soylu, a remote control detonated a car bomb for the explosion. Shortly afterward, a suicide bomber caused a second explosion at Macka Park. The two locations are less than a mile apart.
My thoughts? I’m immediately wondering how the party currently in power will use this event to continue to cement their hold on the levers of power. They’ve already discredited the military, and managed to demonize their chief rivals, the Gulenists. The journalists are under pressure; the Internet has proven to be vulnerable. Now they have an excuse to throw off any political structure which offends them; and by offense, I mean any structure which might constrain them from doing whatever it is they wish, all in the name of pursuing the terrorists who committed this crime.
I suspect we’ll soon see another autocracy, perhaps masquerading under religion, springing up.
