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Vulgarity on Rise in Turkish Political Discourse

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first to place CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the same boat of the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Riot police surround a protester during a protest against Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his government's policy on Syria, in Ankara May 18, 2013. Erdogan said on Friday it would be up to the U.N. Security Council to decide whether to establish a no-fly zone inside Syria and said he backed the involvement of Russia and China in planned peace talks.      REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTXZROX
Riot police surround a protester during a demonstration against Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government's policy on Syria in Ankara, May 18, 2013. — REUTERS/Umit Bektas

There is something wrong with the Turkish political discourse. For an aspiring democracy, the vibe is often shrill and far from democratic.

That said, what M ustafa Akyol, an Al-Monitor contributing writer, argued about the country’s main opposition — the Republican People’s Party (CHP) — may be too far-fetched to claim. Akyol wrote on May 19: “CHP even needs basic sanity, the lack of which is clearly seen in its irrational and immoral stance on Syria.”  

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