Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ways along with his stance regarding Sweden's and Finland’s NATO application, is drawing the fury of an increasing number of international media. The latest publication to denounce him was the German magazine Stern, whose cover on Thursday had his photo under the title “The Arsonist.”!
Stern denounced the Turkish president for inciting conflict to stay in power, not only in his own country, but also in Germany.
The magazine’s editorial said that Erdogan wants to use his influence with the Turks in Germany to secure their support in the upcoming elections. He also wants to remain a troublemaker and firebrand both nationally and internationally, it added, while noting he is stirring up conflicts in his own country, in Syria and in Germany in order to secure power.
The piece came a week after The Economist magazine’s scathing feature on the Erdogan regime and its slide toward autocracy, calling him an international agitator who is using various pretexts to prevent Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.
It stressed that Erdogan has become more unpredictable and aggressive, using the threat of a veto over NATO decisions to pressure the United States Congress to sell a new batch of F-16s to Turkey. These weapons systems, The Economist said, could be used against Greece.
Moreover, a New York Times correspondent in Istanbul said that Erdogan is spending billions of dollars of state funds to win re-election, while launching a barrage of legal threats against his political opponents.
The Swiss Le Temps, for its part, describes Ankara’s objections to NATO enlargement as risky, dangerous and “with its eyes on the Turkish political scene,” noting an informal alliance between far-right Islamophobic elements in the Swedish political scene and Turkish nationalist organizations, which were quick to exploit the burning of Qurans politically.
Finally, the Washington Examiner called him "malignant cancer in world affairs, under whom Turkey already erects multiple roadblocks to international harmony"! The article comes under the title "Biden must protect Enes Kanter Freedom from Erdogan’s evil" critisizing the $500,000 bounty that Erdogan's government has placed on the Turkish basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom.
