Over the past few days Turkey seems to have exploded in protest but you wouldn't know it by following the major American networks. They would much rather cover the DC non-scandals, Senator John McCain's latest attempt at starting a war, or whatever wingnut Rep. Darrell Issa fabricated today. Yesterday Issa called White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a "paid liar," but when asked why he said that he couldn't answer. "We're getting to proving it," is all he said.
It's easy to understand why the major networks aren't covering the Turkish protests very much. I had some trouble thinking of any reasons they should but I did come up with a few. I could start by saying Turkey is an American ally but given some of the countries we call allies I wont count that one. But Turkey is, or seemed to be, an actual secular middle eastern democracy, it is a member of NATO and the European Union, and counts among its neighboring countries Greece, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Turkey is host to 350,000 refugees from the Syrian Civil War, a number that is expected to swell to over a million before summer's end. Finally Turkey has one of the largest standing armies in Europe and, before I forget, the U.S. stations 90 nuclear weapons at the Incirlik Air Base.
It should be easy for you to see why Issa is so much more important to cover.
While I'm on the subject of Turkey I want to mention this from the 'you can't make this shit up' file. Yesterday Syria's Foreign Ministry advised Syrians "against travel to Turkey for the time being for their own safety, because of the deteriorating security." Honestly this would be hilarious if not for the 90,000 Syrians who have died in the Syrian Civil War.
I'm not going to get into why the protests started other than to say Turkey isn't quite as democratic as the wizards inside the beltway like to think it is. If you want more background here is a very good article from Jadaliyya you should start with.
It's easy to understand why the major networks aren't covering the Turkish protests very much. I had some trouble thinking of any reasons they should but I did come up with a few. I could start by saying Turkey is an American ally but given some of the countries we call allies I wont count that one. But Turkey is, or seemed to be, an actual secular middle eastern democracy, it is a member of NATO and the European Union, and counts among its neighboring countries Greece, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Turkey is host to 350,000 refugees from the Syrian Civil War, a number that is expected to swell to over a million before summer's end. Finally Turkey has one of the largest standing armies in Europe and, before I forget, the U.S. stations 90 nuclear weapons at the Incirlik Air Base.
It should be easy for you to see why Issa is so much more important to cover.
While I'm on the subject of Turkey I want to mention this from the 'you can't make this shit up' file. Yesterday Syria's Foreign Ministry advised Syrians "against travel to Turkey for the time being for their own safety, because of the deteriorating security." Honestly this would be hilarious if not for the 90,000 Syrians who have died in the Syrian Civil War.
I'm not going to get into why the protests started other than to say Turkey isn't quite as democratic as the wizards inside the beltway like to think it is. If you want more background here is a very good article from Jadaliyya you should start with.
