Trump envoy Barrack’s embrace of 'strong leaders' sparks fury in Turkey
Turkish opposition members say envoy Tom Barrack’s remarks praising “strong leaders” and monarchies undermine Turkey’s democratic tradition and embolden President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Demands to expel the Trump administration’s ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, are growing within Turkey over his comments deemed to applaud authoritarian rule at a diplomacy summit on Friday in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has called for Barrack, a close personal friend of US President Donald Trump, to be declared “persona non grata” unless he apologized. In a speech before CHP lawmakers in the parliament on Tuesday, Ozel accused the envoy of a “brazen attack on the Republic of Turkey” and of acting in concert with autocrats seeking to “create a new world order” in which “democracy is reversed,” “elites” are empowered and “ordinary folk are impoverished.”
Lawmakers from other opposition parties joined in with demands for Barrack’s immediate expulsion. "What more does [Barrack] need to do in order to be declared persona non grata by the government?” fumed Mahmut Arikan, the leader of the pro-Islamist Saadet (Felicity) Party. Similar sentiments flooded Turkish social media platforms.
Good for the Orient
