Monday, January 05, 2015
Amb. Alan Baker: Ten Points Regarding the Fundamental Breach by the Palestinians of the Oslo Accords
1. The peace negotiation process as set out in the Oslo Accords was intended to lead to peace between Israel and the Palestinian People and mutual recognition of each other’s “mutual legitimate and political rights” (Preamble, Oslo I and Oslo II).‘Most Palestinians believe Israel wants to destroy Al-Aqsa’
2. In this context Israel was prepared to compromise on the historic and legal rights of the Jewish People in the area, through agreement for peaceful relations. To this end the parties agreed in the Oslo Accords not to initiate or take any steps that will change the status of the territories pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations (Oslo II, Article 31(7)).
3. Yasser Arafat, in his September 9, 1993, letter to Yitzhak Rabin, declared that “all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations.”
4. This overall series of commitments and obligations constitutes a contractual framework of obligations between Israel and the Palestinians, signed as witnesses and guarantors by the King of Jordan, the Presidents of the U.S. and Egypt, the Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation and Norway, the EU and endorsed by the UN.
5. By petitioning the UN, the International Criminal Court and international organizations to recognize them and accept them as a full member state, and by their unification with the Hamas terror organization, the Palestinians have knowingly and deliberately bypassed their contractual obligations pursuant to the Oslo Accords in an attempt to prejudge the main negotiating issues outside the negotiation.
Four months after Operation Protective Edge, Palestinian support for violence against Israel is at a peak, with most Palestinians believing that Israel has concrete plans to destroy the Muslim structures on the Temple Mount and replace them with a Jewish temple, a new Palestinian poll has found.Khaled Abu Toameh: What about Arab War Crimes against Palestinians?
Khalil Shikaki, director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), told journalists at the Jerusalem Press Club Sunday that Palestinian attitudes toward Israel have hardened more dramatically in the wake of Operation Protective Edge than after the two previous military operations in Gaza, in 2008 and 2012.
Fearful of Israel and distrustful of their own leadership, 43 percent of Gaza residents and 23% of West Bankers said they are seeking emigration abroad.
In a poll conducted by PSR among 1,270 Palestinians during the first week of December 2014, 86% of Palestinians said that the Temple Mount (known in Arabic as al-Haram al-Sharif) is “in great danger,” with 77% believing that Israel intends to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replace them with a Jewish temple, and 21% opining that it intends to divide the plaza into Jewish and Arab domains, with a synagogue planned for the Jewish area.
Half the respondents believed Israel would succeed in implementing its plans.
And who ever heard of the case of Zaki al-Hobby, a 17-year old Palestinian who was shot and killed last weekend by Egyptian border guards? Had he been shot by Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border, the EU and UN would have called for an international commission of inquiry.
The stories of the Palestinians tortured to death in an Arab prison have also failed to win the attention of the Western media. Nor have the EU and the UN, which called for an investigation into the death of Abu Ein -- who died of a heart attack while in a confrontation with an Israeli soldier -- deemed it necessary to tackle the plight of the Palestinians being killed and tortured to death in Syria and other Arab countries.
As far as the Palestinian Authority is concerned — and the media, the EU, the UN and human rights groups — the only "war crimes" are being committed by Israelis, and not by Arabs who are killing, torturing and displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians. And all this is happening while the international community and media continue to display an obsession only with everything connected to Israel.
Shurat Hadin readies war crimes complaints against Palestinians
NGO Shurat Hadin went into high gear Sunday preparing war crimes complaints against a range of Palestinians, following the Palestinian Authority’s move to join the International Criminal Court last Wednesday.British activists launch lawsuit over deadly raid on Gaza 'peace flotilla'
Israeli officials were widely quoted as saying they would make sure to launch a counterattack of new war crimes complaints against Palestinians using third-party NGOs like Shurat Hadin (though no specific ones were named) as proxies.
This past November, the NGO had already filed a war crimes complaint with the ICC prosecutor against PA President Mahmoud Abbas and in September it similar complaints against Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
Since at the time the PA had not yet signed the Rome Statute, both complaints were filed against Abbas and Mashaal as Jordanian citizens.
Jordan, unlike Israel or the PA, accepted ICC jurisdiction over its citizens in April 2002, removing the obstacle that until now has blocked most proposals for bringing the ICC into the conflict.
The basis for the Abbas complaint was reports of Fatah-affiliated armed groups firing significant numbers of rockets on Israel from Gaza during Operation Protective Edge along with Hamas, which launched most of the rockets.
The NGO argued Abbas is liable for the Fatah armed groups’ actions as its leader, though it recognized that Abbas publicly opposed rocket fire.
Scotland Yard has been asked to investigate whether Israeli special forces who attacked a "peace flotilla" of ships in international waters killing 10 people committed war crimes. Lawyers acting for British activists have launched legal proceedings in the hope of prosecuting the Israeli soldiers in the UK.Party Time: Fatah's Founding Myth
Evidence passed to the Metropolitan Police names five Israeli military commanders alleged to have committed war crimes when the troops they commanded stormed the flotilla which was attempting to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza in May 2010.
Lawyers representing 13 of the 34 Britons on the Turkish-registered MV Mavi Marmara, the main civilian vessel in the fleet of six ships carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, say some of the commanders had visited Britain since the incident and said the police now had evidence which should result in their arrest if they return. Identical legislation was used to arrest the Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet in the UK in 1998. (h/t Bob Knot)
It's Jan. 1, so it's party time in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. It's not the new year they're celebrating with massive demonstrations replete with trampled American, British and Israeli flags and cute kids toting guns -- it's the anniversary of Fatah's first attack against Israel. This year is a milestone: 50 years since the Jan. 1, 1965 attack against Israel's water carrier.Aaron David Miller: Why the Diplomatic Intifada Will Fail
Remarkably, year after year, Fatah has passed off the festivities to credible media outlets as marking the movement's founding. This deception is a rather impressive feat given that Fatah was founded in October 1959, not in January 1965. Thus, even journalists with the most rudimentary math skills ought to be able to detect that the number of years since Fatah's founding does not correspond to the number of years marked each year at the movement's annual shindig.
In some instances, caption writers and photo editors were clearly aware that Fatah was founded in the 1950s, and not in 1965. Yet, as is the case with the following Agence France Presse image, they were apparently not bothered by the fact that it has been more than 50 years since Fatah's founding.
And those who argue that the Palestinian diplomatic intifada, including a push to join the International Criminal Court and other international treaties and conventions, remains the most effective tool in pushing Israel into making peace concessions need to take a hard look at current realities. For now, on the contrary, these factors only dilute and constrain the pressure game.Dennis Ross: Stop Giving Palestinians a Pass
The Arabs Remain Israel’s Best Talking Points. It may be politically incorrect to admit it, but the current state of the Arab world lessens the pressure on Israel and creates a fair measure of balance in leavening out Israel’s own bad behavior. Much of the region is melting down right now. And with that turbulence comes a range of behavior that makes Israel’s own policies, including settlement activity and occupation practices (as bad as they may be), pale by comparison. Egypt is imprisoning thousands of political prisoners; Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is massacring his own people by the tens of thousands; the Islamic State is beheading Americans and killing thousands of others; Iran stands in violation of UN Security Council resolutions on the nuclear issue, is supporting Assad’s murderous campaign, is a serial human rights abuser, and is executing more people every year than any country other than China; and Hamas—itself open to charges of war crimes—has willfully used high trajectory weapons against civilians this past summer in an effort to achieve political and economic goals. Throw in a few non-Middle East bad boys like Vladimir Putin whose policies in eastern Ukraine have resulted in the deaths of 5,000 people (double the number of Palestinians the UN estimates were killed in the latest Gaza war), and you see why trash-talking against Israel is unlikely to lead to serious sanctions.
Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anticolonialist bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate. Compromise is portrayed as betrayal, and negotiations — which are by definition about mutual concessions — will inevitably force any Palestinian leader to challenge his people by making a politically costly decision.PA has not done its homework
But going to the United Nations does no such thing. It puts pressure on Israel and requires nothing of the Palestinians. Resolutions are typically about what Israel must do and what Palestinians should get. If saying yes is costly and doing nothing isn’t, why should we expect the Palestinians to change course?
That’s why European leaders who fervently support Palestinian statehood must focus on how to raise the cost of saying no or not acting at all when there is an offer on the table. Palestinians care deeply about international support for their cause. If they knew they would be held accountable for being nonresponsive or rejecting a fair offer or resolution, it could well change their calculus.
From an international law perspective, analysis of Palestinian Authority's threats reveals that they are likely hollow, although their intent and ability to hurt Israel is still real. It appears though that Palestinian Authority itself is not that well versed in international organizations. Take, for example, the London based news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat, which claimed on Friday that a Palestinian representative had been instructed to expedite the submission of complaints at The Hague against Israel for war crimes.Israel will ask Congress to stop US aid to Palestinians
But contrary to popular belief, the ICC in The Hague does not deal with the conviction or investigation of a nation's crimes and Mahmoud Abbas cannot "sue Israel." The ICC deals with cases and actions of individuals. Furthermore, there are conditions in place that may hamper the Palestinians' ability to sue Israeli military officers and government employees involved in defense. For one, to sue Israeli officials, the Palestinian Authority must be a fully fledged nation, an absolute requirement for the ICC.
Considering that the U.N. Security Council refused the Palestinian Authority's statehood petition, it would be very hard for the president of the ICC to see the Palestinian Authority is a proper nation -- even though they were accepted as an observer state in the U.N. General Assembly. The Palestinian Authority also does not uphold the requirement set by the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States on what constitutes a nation, in that it does not have "defined territory."
Israel is poised to ask Congress to stop funding the Palestinian Authority, a day after the Israeli government froze NIS 500 million ($127 million) in Palestinian tax revenues collected on Ramallah’s behalf, in response to the Palestinian Authority filing a request to join the International Criminal Court earlier this week.Erekat hints at dissolution of Palestinian Authority after Israel withholds tax funds
An Israeli official said Sunday that Jerusalem will turn to pro-Israel Congress members to ensure that a law banning funds to the Palestinian Authority should it turn to the ICC be enforced, Haaretz reported. The Palestinians stand to lose some $400 million per year in US aid.
The stop-gap funding bill passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last month contains language that stipulates that no State Department economic support funding may be given to the PA if “the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court judicially authorized investigation, or actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians.”
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat hinted on Sunday that the Palestinians might dissolve the Palestinian Authority and call on Israel to fully assume its responsibilities over the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Haniyeh: The PA Isn't Giving Gaza Enough Money
In an interview with YNET, Erekat said that the Palestinian leadership would meet soon to discuss calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to come and assume his responsibilities on the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Referring to the Israeli decision to withhold tax funds belonging to the Palestinian Authority, Erekat said: “Netanyahu is destroying the Palestinian Authority. What authority did he leave? The Israeli people don’t see us anymore and that’s the problem.”
Erekat claimed that the Israeli government has cancelled the PA’s political, legal, economic, security and territorial jurisdiction over Palestinian territories.
Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of not spending a “fair amount” of its budget on Gaza, despite the formation of a unity government between Hamas and Fatah.Hamas Terrorist Entered Israel for Medical Treatment and Stayed
"They (the PA) take $70 million in taxes and returns from Gaza each month, and it is not true what they have claimed -- that they spend 55 percent of their budget on Gaza," Haniyeh said in a speech following the funeral of two young Gazans who died in a house fire caused by candles that were lit due to a power outage, according to the Ma’an news agency.
"Where is the nationalistic, moral, and religious responsibility taken by our brothers in Ramallah while they see our children burned because of this tragedy, the siege, and the crises?" he charged.
Haniyeh also asked why the necessary fuel material to operate Gaza's sole power station had not been allowed into the Strip.
"There are those who want to throw Gaza in the sea -- unfortunately not just our enemies but our own people," he claimed.
The southern district attorney has submitted an indictment at the Be'er Sheva regional court against Ramzi Afana, a Hamas terrorist who served on Hamas's police force in Gaza, took part in military training for the organization and conducted security crimes against Israel.PreOccupied Territory: I Hope This 4-Year Presidential Term Lasts At Least 12 By Palestinian President Abbas (satire)
Afana entered Israel from Gaza in 2013 to receive medical treatment - he never returned to Gaza when the authorized treatment period ended and remained in Israel without permission, until being arrested in the Judea and Samaria region a year later.
The crimes leveled against Afana in the indictment include contacting a foreign agent, actions in an unlawful association, military training and weapons crimes, illegal stay in Israel and others.
Palestinians and others in the region often look to Israel as a model of democratic functioning, but they overlook the achievements of my administration on those very same issues. In Israel one encounters nonstop complaining and legislative instability, whereas under my aegis, Palestinians do not voice any complaints, and no one has to worry about collapsing coalition governments or political horse-trading that means compromising on important issues. In Palestine, no one has to compromise.Egyptian TV Host: Tzipi Livni, the Whore of Israel, Had Sex with Arab Leaders
So-called human rights organizations make some noise about our treatment of dissenters, but that’s just a smoke screen. They have to pretend to be even-handed and neutral when they criticize Israel, so they also include so-called violations by my security apparatus. Everyone knows they make things up or rely on dishonest sources, so nobody pays any attention to what those groups say. There are no dissenters. At least not for very long.
So as I look ahead to the eleventh year of my four-year presidential term, I see stability born of determination. I see continued security in the backing of the right citizens of this great nation-in-development. I see vigilance against the forces that would disrupt that security. And I see the beginnings of what may prove to be another great decade of Palestinian achievement in democratic governance.
Egyptian President Calls for ‘Religious Revolution’ in Islam
In a speech on New Year’s day, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a “religious revolution” in Islam that would displace violent jihad from the center of Muslim discourse.Bomb wounds four policemen in Egypt's Sinai
“Is it possible that 1.6 billion people (Muslims worldwide) should want to kill the rest of the world’s population—that is, 7 billion people—so that they themselves may live?” he asked. “Impossible.”
Speaking to an audience of religious scholars celebrating the birth of Islam’s prophet, Mohammed, he called on the religious establishment to lead the fight for moderation in the Muslim world. “You imams (prayer leaders) are responsible before Allah. The entire world—I say it again, the entire world—is waiting for your next move because this umma (a word that can refer either to the Egyptian nation or the entire Muslim world) is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.”
He was speaking in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, widely regarded as the leading world center for Islamic learning.
Four Egyptian policemen were wounded on Monday by a bomb in the volatile Sinai Peninsula, security sources said.UN chief extends Hariri tribunal mandate to 2018
The device was planted at the entrance to an apartment building in the provincial capital of Al-Arish, the sources said.
Most of the violence has been in the Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip. But some attacks have occurred in cities and towns.
In a separate attack on Monday in Cairo, a bomb exploded in the car of a police officer who was not in the vehicle at the time, security sources said.
Security officials say Sinai-based militants are inspired by Islamic State, the al-Qaida offshoot that controls parts of Iraq and Syria and wants to redraw the map of the Middle East.
The suicide truck bomb that killed Hariri and 22 others including the bomber was one of the Middle East’s most dramatic political assassinations. Hariri, a billionaire Sunni businessman, was Lebanon’s most prominent politician after the country’s 15-year civil war ended in 1990.How oil price slump is putting a squeeze on Hezbollah, Iran's Shiite ally
Four Hezbollah members were charged in 2011 with plotting the attack on Feb. 14, 2005 but have not been arrested. Their trial in absentia began in January 2014 and is ongoing near The Hague, Netherlands.
Hezbollah denies involvement in the murder and the group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has denounced the court as a conspiracy by his archenemies — the US and Israel.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, who announced the mandate extension until March 1, 2018, reaffirmed Ban’s commitment to support the Special Tribunal for Lebanon “to bring those responsible to justice and to ensure that impunity for such major crimes will not be tolerated.”
A slump in global oil prices and nuclear-tied sanctions are squeezing the group’s patron Iran, which is already funneling billions of dollars to the Syrian regime. As Iran tightens its belt, Hezbollah has had to impose salary cuts on personnel, defer payments to suppliers and reduce monthly stipends to its political allies in Lebanon, according to a wide range of political and diplomatic sources in Beirut, including friends and foes of the powerful Shiite party.Top Hezbollah official: Shi'ites and Sunnis will unite to fight Israel in next battle
The financial difficulties do not pose an immediate threat to Hezbollah’s political and popular standing in Lebanon. Moreover, the flow of Iranian largesse is controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Iran’s supreme leader, and isn’t part of the government’s oil-dependent budget.
But the belt-tightening underlines just how reliant Hezbollah is on Iranian largesse to pay its ever increasing army of fighters, as well as to bankroll its massive social welfare network of schools and hospitals upon which much of its Shiite support base depends.
Hezbollah's Executive Council chief Sheikh Nabil Qaouk said that Hezbollah is preparing for the next confrontation with Israel, in which thousands of Sunnis will join the Lebanese Shi'ite terror group, according to the Lebanese news site The Daily Star.'Islamic State seeking bases inside Lebanon'
Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian civil war and support of the Syrian regime that is fighting Sunni forces, has exacerbated Lebanon's already fraught sectarian lines. Qaouk accused Israel of exploiting the sectarian aspect of the Syrian crisis to weaken Hezbollah
“Hezbollah’s response to Israel’s bet on Sunni-Shi'ite strife is this: The resistance is preparing for the next war with Israel, and thousands of our Sunni brothers in Lebanon will be among the ranks [of the] resistance,” Qaouk said during a Hezbollah ceremony in Sidon, according the report.
Islamic State militants holed up in the Qalamoun mountains on the Syrian-Lebanese border are seeking to gain control of nearby Lebanese villages to support their fighting positions, the head of Lebanon's main security apparatus told Reuters.British journalist held hostage by ISIS narrates propaganda video
Major General Abbas Ibrahim said Lebanese forces were on high alert to prevent the hardline militants from seizing any Lebanese territory near the Qalamoun mountains, which demarcate Lebanon's eastern border with Syria.
Such crossborder incursions would add to concern that Lebanon, which suffered its own civil war in 1975-90, could be drawn further into the conflict in neighboring Syria.
John Cantlie, the British journalist being held captive by Islamic State, is featured in the jihadist organization's latest propaganda video which was released online Sunday.Islamic State kidnaps 170 over flag burning
Cantlie is seen "reporting" on life in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, where "business as usual" reigns.
The reporter narrates an eight-minute clip during which he visits various points in the city, Iraq's second largest.
The video is aimed at dispelling reports that the city has been suffering from economic hardships under the thumb of ISIS.
An intelligence officer said that a total of 170 men were taken from the villages of Al-Shajara and Gharib in Kirkuk province, after two IS flags were burned in the area, an account confirmed by other officials from the province.ISIS Targets 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Nineveh Walls in Iraq
“Members of the (IS) organization who were driving around 30 vehicles took the kidnapped (people) to the centre of Hawijah,” a nearby town where they have a court and a prison, the officer said.
A resident of Al-Shajara said that women pleaded with the IS militants not to harm the men, to which the fighters responded that they would investigate and only punish those responsible for the flag burning in the village.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) set their eyes on another historical site to demolish as they continue to establish their caliphate across Iraq. Residents near Mosul told Assyrian website Ankawa the militants’ plan to blow up the walls of Nineveh, which date back to almost 700 B.C.Senator: Congress Looks to Start 2015 by Demanding Up or Down Vote on Any Iran Nuke Deal
Unnamed sources said the Islamic State leaders told members to set booby traps along the walls. If the Iraqi army attempts to liberate the area, the militants must “complete the bombing of the historic walls.” The walls are attributed to King Sennacherib, who rebuilt the city during his reign beginning in 704 B.C., and consist of a seven and a half mile barrier around the city—presumably to protect it from attack when it served as the capital of ancient Assyria. Nineveh was so important and Sennacherib’s contributions so great that some archaeologists have gone as far as to attribute to him the construction and maintenance of the ancient Hanging Gardens, long believed to be in Babylon.
The Islamic State moved to the Nineveh Plain in early August, “the last stronghold of Assyrians in Iraq.” Over 200,000 Assyrians fled to the Dohuk and Arbel areas.
In a year-end interview with Steve Inskeep of NPR, Sen. Marco Rubio said that he expected legislation forcing an up or down Congressional vote on any deal with Iran to come up early in this legislative session:Iran denies nuclear deal with world powers close
Al-Monitor reports:
Probably the first vote in my sense will be something that will require any deal to come before Congress for approval, the way a treaty would,” Rubio told the “Morning Edition” program in a year-end interview scheduled to run on New Year’s Day. “That’s my sense of where we would initially go.” …
“Some of my colleagues certainly have expressed to me that they would rather pass a bill that does two things: One, it requires congressional approval, which I also support; and two, would trigger sanctions upon a failure of a deal some point over the next six months,” Rubio said. “Additional sanctions would probably be triggered as being put in by a failure to reach an ultimate agreement.”
Iran denied reports on Saturday that it had reached a tentative agreement with the US and other world powers on a formula that would rein in its nuclear program.Obama’s ‘Islamic Republic’ Doctrine: Trust in Iran Creates a Dangerous Mess
“Such media propaganda was made with political motivations and is basically aimed at damaging the atmosphere of the nuclear talks and further complicating the process to resolve the nuclear issues,”
said spokeswoman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Marziyeh Afkham, according to IRNA news agency.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that two diplomats it spoke to said that negotiators at the December round of nuclear talks drew up for the first time a catalog outlining areas of potential accord and differing approaches to remaining disputes.
It’s therefore tempting to believe that his personal legacy, and not any dispassionate assessment of geopolitics, is what lies at the heart of Obama’s calculations. As Associated Press reporter Matt Lee observed at a White House press briefing, “Since 1979, American foreign policy, with respect to Iran, has been designed to keep it from becoming a successful regional power.” So what has changed? Certainly not the behavior or the stance of the Iranians. As a senior Iranian military commander said only last week, “There are only two things that would end enmity between us and the United States. Either the U.S. president and EU leaders should convert to Islam and imitate the Supreme Leader, or Iran should abandon Islam and the Islamic revolution.”Turkey is no American Ally
Yet Obama wants to be remembered as the president who made peace with states that were previously regarded as this country’s implacable enemies. If we can make peace with Cuba, the logic goes, and end a trade embargo that has prevailed for more than 50 years, why can’t we do the same with Iran?
One president’s legacy of peace, however, can quite easily be another president’s inheritance of war and conflict. The present time would have been an ideal opportunity for Obama to get tough with the Iranians, given that oil prices have collapsed and that the Saudis are content for the price to remain at rock bottom if that makes life harder for the Tehran regime. Instead, America is leading the world—from the front, this time—into another series of open-ended negotiations with the mullahs that could well result in the weaponization of Iran’s nuclear program by the time Obama leaves office.
Never did the bitter words of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah ring truer: “Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace.”
Turkey is officially a NATO ally, and President Barrack Obama has called the current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a friend. But Erdogan-led Turkey does not behave as an ally or a friend of the US. This is not a new development.
Erdogan and his Islamist party, the AKP, have ruled Turkey since 2002. Erdogan's Turkey has gradually distanced itself from the West, adopting domestic and foreign policies fueled by Ottoman and Islamist impulses.
Turkey has been on the road to an authoritarian regime for several years. Infringements on human rights have gradually increased. In truth, Turkey has never had a political system with checks and balances able to constrain attempts to consolidate power around one politician. In recent years, Erdogan has weakened further the few constitutional constraints against the 'Putinization' of the Turkish political system.
