Trump calls to congratulate Erdogan after votes grant sweeping powers

[Jacque67 7,328]

Donald Trump called to congratulate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hours after the Turkish president claimed a narrow victory in a contested referendum that will grant him sweeping new powers, according to the White House. 

International observers monitoring the Turkish referendum concluded in a preliminary report on Monday that the campaign and vote took place in a political environment where the “fundamental freedoms essential to a genuinely democratic process were curtailed”.

Turkey vote curtailed fundamental freedoms, say European observers

 

 

Read more

The US president spoke on Monday with Erdoğan, whose triumph in the constitutional referendum escalated concern over his increasingly authoritarian grip on power.

Trump’s congratulatory message strikes a starkly different tone than the statement issued by the US state department on Monday, which urged Erdoğan to respect his citizens’ fundamental rights and noted the report’s findings of “irregularities on voting day and an uneven playing field during the difficult campaign period”.

According to a readout of the call provided by the White House, the two leaders discussed the recent developments in Syria, the US response to the chemical attack in Syria and “agreed on the importance of holding Syrian president Bashar al-Assad accountable”. The readout matches reports of a statement from Erdoğan’s office, which was reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency.

On Sunday, Turkey narrowly approved a package of constitutional amendments that will dramatically reshape the country’s system of government. The proposal replaces the country’s parliamentary system with a presidential one and abolishes the role of the prime minister.

[Jacque67 7,328]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/17/donald-trump-erdogan-turkey-referendum-congratulations

[CaliCat 3,957]

Are you surprised? He has to be liked by all the dictators. Putin has been upset with the so-called president lately, so he needs a new friend. 

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

1 hour ago, CaliCat said:

Are you surprised? He has to be liked by all the dictators. Putin has been upset with the so-called president lately, so he needs a new friend. 

Trump: So anywho..have you heard from Putie?

Erdogan: Errrh I don't know....

Trump: I really don't know what I said to make him so upset. Do you think he will want to be my friend?

Erdogan: You know sometimes space and time really help provide some perspective....

Trump: I have tried not to think about him but I just can't get him out of my mind....I think I will send him a tape

[IAMX 3,055]

Putin - Democratically elected

Erdogan - Democratically elected (and democratic referendum)

Trump - Democratically elected

(Leftists against Brexit, another democratic referendum, prefer Brits to be permanently under EU rule)

 

I can see why this offends the left. Dictators when it doesn't go their way, democracy when it does.

[bcking 3,157]

21 minutes ago, IAMX said:

Putin - Democratically elected

Erdogan - Democratically elected (and democratic referendum)

Trump - Democratically elected

(Leftists against Brexit, another democratic referendum, prefer Brits to be permanently under EU rule)

 

I can see why this offends the left. Dictators when it doesn't go their way, democracy when it does.

Correction - Elected via a Republican system of representatives

 

The "Democratically elected" President would have been "the other one" who ran.

[yuna628 9,755]

30 minutes ago, IAMX said:

Putin - Democratically elected

Erdogan - Democratically elected (and democratic referendum)

Trump - Democratically elected

(Leftists against Brexit, another democratic referendum, prefer Brits to be permanently under EU rule)

 

I can see why this offends the left. Dictators when it doesn't go their way, democracy when it does.

Putin and Erdogan democratically elected?!

 

Is that what they are teaching people these days?

[Jacque67 7,328]

9 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Putin and Erdogan democratically elected?!

 

Is that what they are teaching people these days?

Ha ha!

[CaliCat 3,957]

10 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Putin and Erdogan democratically elected?!

 

Is that what they are teaching people these days?

 

Worse. They are teaching it, and people believe it's true.

[CaliCat 3,957]

35 minutes ago, bcking said:

Correction - Elected via a Republican system of representatives

 

The "Democratically elected" President would have been "the other one" who ran.

 

Correction - Elected via a Republican system of representatives, under suspicious and questionable circumstances.

 

 

[IAMX 3,055]

19 minutes ago, CaliCat said:

 

Correction - Elected via a Republican system of representatives, under suspicious and questionable circumstances.

 

 

[Dashinka 24,960]

1 hour ago, CaliCat said:

 

Correction - Elected via a Republican system of representatives, under suspicious and questionable circumstances.

 

 

Only in the MDLs warped tin foil fueled minds. 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2017 by Bill & Katya

[bcking 3,157]

2 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

Only in the MDLs warped tin foil fueled minds. 

 

 

Suspicious/Questionable circumstances, correct

 

However you can't argue that the way we elect a President is through a democratic election. We didn't even have a "popular vote" mechanism for President until 1824. From the inception the President was intended to be elected by representative "electors", which isn't democracy.

[Dashinka 24,960]

57 minutes ago, bcking said:

Suspicious/Questionable circumstances, correct

 

However you can't argue that the way we elect a President is through a democratic election. We didn't even have a "popular vote" mechanism for President until 1824. From the inception the President was intended to be elected by representative "electors", which isn't democracy.

The country was not set up to be a democracy.  Much like many other forms of government, the only direct link to the Federal government was supposed to be the lower house in Congress.  Of course we screwed this up with the 17th Amendment making the Senate extremely political.  I am fine with the electoral system as the Federal government and the President is supposed to represent the States more so than the individual people.

[bcking 3,157]

Just now, Bill & Katya said:

The country was not set up to be a democracy.  Much like many other forms of government, the only direct link to the Federal government was supposed to be the lower house in Congress.  Of course we screwed this up with the 17th Amendment making the Senate extremely political.  I am fine with the electoral system as the Federal government and the President is supposed to represent the States more so than the individual people.

You can be fine with it, that's okay. I was specifically addressing another poster claiming Trump was "democratically elected".

 

He was PROPERLY elected, based on our current rules, to be sure. But our current rules for electing the President is not through a "democratic" process. It is through a system of representatives.