Erdogan Says Assad “Mercilessly Killed 400,000 People”, Accuses Opposition Of “Treason”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is no fan-o’-Kurds, so to speak. Well, unless the Kurds you’re talking about are assisting in a lucrative business that involves the trafficking of illicit crude from Iraq to the port of Ceyhan.
Back in June, AKP lost its absolute majority in parliament after the pro-Kurdish HDP put on a surprisingly strong showing at the ballot box. We won’t recount the entire series of events that unfolded thereafter here as we’ve covered the story extensively, but suffice to say the democratic election outcome wasn’t allowed to stand because it imperiled Erdogan’s bid to transition the country to an executive presidency. In short, Erdogan blamed HDP and took it out on the PKK with whom he reignited a long simmering conflict on the way to scoring a better outcome at redo elections in November.
The opposition in Turkey is acutely aware of the fact that Erdogan is essentially running a thinly disguised autocracy and dissident voices are getting louder even as Ankara tries to suppress them with brutality and threats of imprisonment.
Over the weekend, HDP co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas said that Turkey’s largest ethnic minority had to decide whether to live in autonomy or “under one man’s tyranny”. Needless to say, the ‘one man’ in question wasn’t pleased and on Tuesday the President called the remarks treasonous. On Monday, prosecutors in Diyarbakir and Ankara opened an investigation into six people including Demirtas.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 12/29/2015.