“While I think the municipal elections quite rightly demonstrate a continued desire for democracy in Turkey—[nd that] remains true across a very wide spectrum of the Turkish population—I don’t think that necessarily translates into actual democracy.”

“It is very unnerving but at the same time quite believable that Turkey hasn’t been really going after these jihadist networks because Turkish law enforcement has been busy hunting down dissidents and government critics.”

“The US seems to insist on wishful thinking. Turkey is not going to give the S-400s back or keep them as a 2 billion dollar paperweight.”

“Turkey is the world’s biggest jailer of journalists. Beyond that, Erdoğan controls nearly 90-95% of the media outlets that do exist, and on top of that there’s still a very large crackdown where journalists are continuously arrested.”