Coup anniversary leaves US, Europe facing few choices on Turkey
Despite his jibes and vitriolic rhetoric against them, Western powers appear set to continue appeasing President Erdogan for the sake of their broader interests.
A year after the bloody attempt to overthrow him, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is holding his ground against the West with a tenacious determination he is unlikely to forgo anytime soon. With the memory of the successful Egyptian coup of July 2013 still fresh in his mind, Erdogan clearly believes the United States and Europe are ultimately behind efforts to have him overthrown.
The lack of any immediate response by the West to the coup attempt and its condemnations of it only after it was clear the attempt had failed merely increased Erdogan’s resentment for the West.
“Instead of expressing solidarity with my countrymen, a number of Western governments and institutions opted to wait and see how the crisis would play out,” Erdogan said in an article for The Guardian published July 15, the anniversary of the coup attempt.
"Their hypocrisy and double standards deeply disturbed the Turkish people, who risked everything to defend freedom," he added.
