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A man pulls a cart in front of a portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Taksim Square in Istanbul on March 15, 2017.

Politicians in Turkey and the European Union stoking tensions for short-term electoral gain may have done lasting damage to vital economic and security ties.

While relations between the EU and Turkey have been rocky for years, the furor of recent days -- with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan freely hurling the Nazi epithet at his western antagonists -- marks a rift that could prove irreparable. Turkey has been negotiating EU membership since 2005, but progress has come close to a halt.

Even without anyone saying it, Turkeys EU membership talks will go into an irreversible coma now, said Marc Pierini, who served as the EUs ambassador to Turkey from 2006-2011 and is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, a Brussels-based think tank. That will suit everybody, except Turkeys democrats.

Simmering tensions between the NATO allies boiled over when bitter campaigns were added to the mix last weekend. Dutch officials prevented Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from landing his plane to seek support among expatriates, expelled another cabinet minister from the country and quelled the ensuing protests by Dutch Turks. That prompted Erdogans denunciations.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte faced voters Wednesday, in which the anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders was his biggest challenger. Rutte took a tough line with Turkey and last-minute opinion polls suggest that was what voters wanted to see.

For his part, Erdogan is trying to rally support for constitutional changes to be voted on April 16. On Monday, a report by the Council of Europes legal watchdog, the Venice Commission, attacked the changes as anti-democratic, warning that the amendments would create a presidential system with no meaningful separation of powers and risk authoritarian rule.

Erdogans denunciations of the Netherlands, Germany and the EU as a whole as fascist has drowned those criticisms and rallied Turkish nationalists behind him. Even the main opposition, the Republican Peoples Party, has backed him. On Wednesday,hackers hijacked the Twitter accounts of major European news organizations and European Parliament legislators, posting swastikas and messages in support of Erdogan.

The harshness of Erdogans rhetoric will make any pretense at restoring the kind of EU-Turkish partnership that existed a decade ago difficult, if not impossible. At the same time, the rise of anti-Muslim populists such as Wilders and Frances Marine Le Pen is pushing even mainstream European parties to adopt some of their policies, turning any outreach to predominantly Muslim Turkey into a political liability.

Turkish officials appear to agree that a growing divide over values now separates the EU and Turkey.

It goes beyond a mere diplomatic spat and is symptomatic of a deeper problem, wrote Ibrahim Kalin, senior adviser and spokesman for Erdogan, in a Turkish newspaper column published March 14. European politicians are giving in to the type of racist and anti-Muslim populism that undermines the core values of democracy, civility, multiculturalism and human rights.

Pierini sees a wider clash between two populisms -- one anti-Muslim in Europe, and the other fighting for the Islamization of the secular Turkish Republic -- that risks an uncontrolled downward spiral. Europes leaders, he said, are losing sight of the fundamentals, that you have a counter-revolution going on in Turkey, where Erdogan is trying to reverse the westward course on which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk set the country in 1923.

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Hanging in the balance is a deal struck a year ago, under which Turkey agreed to cooperate in stemming the flow of refugees from Syria. In exchange, the EU provided more than $3 billion in economic aid and pledges both to re-energize Turkeys stalled membership talks and deliver visa-free travel for Turks entering the 26-nation Schengen area, both of which are increasingly politically toxic for EU leaders.

On Monday, Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said Turkey might rethink the deal, while Erdogan has in the past threatened to bus refugees to the Bulgarian and Greek borders. Deputy Prime Minister Nurman Kurtulmus also this week threatened the Netherlands with the possibility of economic sanctions in the future.

The key question is whether we can sever political ties without damaging the economic ones, and I dont think we can,said Atilla Yesilada, Istanbul-based adviser to GlobalSource Partners, an economic consultancy.

In 2016, 60 percent of the goods Turkey exported to the rest of the world went to the EU. Europe also provides at least two-thirds of foreign direct investment in Turkey as well as many of its tourists. Growth was negative in the last reported quarter, and on Wednesday, the government published the worst budget deficit and unemployment figures since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Im not saying Erdogan cant do it, but I think its a bluff, said Yesilada. We need to sell our textiles and other goods to Europe, because we arent a resource economy. Turkey just isnt Russia.

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Erdogan and Europe Head for Political Blow-Up They Can't Afford - Bloomberg

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One rally in Stockholm planned for 12 March was cancelledafter the venue owner cancelled the contract for the event, but the Swedish foreign ministry was quick to point out they had no part in the decision and that it could take place elsewhere.

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Leaders in Erdoans party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), have already staged at least one small rally in the suburbs of Stockholm, with party secretary Mehmet Medhi Eker addressing some three hundred supporters.

The New Europeanreportsthe Scandinavian countrys capitulation in the context of rising support for the populist, anti-mass migration Sweden Democrats. The party has increased their vote share from 5.7 per cent in 2010 to 12.9 per cent in 2014, with opinion polls suggesting they may now have the backing of more than 20 per cent of the electorate.

Erdoan has been escalating a high-level row with the Netherlands in recent days. Over the weekend, the European Union (EU) member state refused to allow Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlt avuolu to attend a rally in Rotterdam and turned back another government minister, Family Minister Fatma Betl Sayan Kaya, who crossed the German border with a fleet of ministerial cars.

The decision prompted the Turkish strongman to promise harsh retaliation anddenigrate the Dutch as fascists and Nazi remnants.

Turkish migrants and dual nationals who support the Moderate Islamist felt compelled to riot in the streets, causing anti-mass migration electoral frontrunner Geert Wilders to broadcast a message saying: You are no Europeans, and you will never be.

An Islamic state like Turkey does not belong to Europe. All the values Europe stands for freedom, democracy, human rights are incompatible with Islam, he said.

Turkey voted for Erdoan, a dangerous Islamist who raises the flag of Islam. We do not want more, but less Islam. So Turkey, stay away from us. You are not welcome here.

Germany and Denmarkhave joined the Netherlands in discouraging the Turkish government from campaigning on their territory withErdoan accusing the former of Nazi practices as a result. Swedens decision marks abreak in European solidarity.

The move has upset Swedens substantial Kurdish population, which has been fighting periodic battles with Turkish migrants on Swedens streets for years.

Kurds have suffered greatly in Turkey since afailed coup attempt by secularists in the Turkish armed forces last year,which Erdoans regime used as an opportunity to crack down on political opponents across the board.

Pro-Kurdish lawmakers from thePeoples Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested en massein November 2016. On 10 March 2017, the United Nations released a report detailing how Turkish military, security, and police forces have subjected thousands of Kurds to summary execution, rape, and torture, and rendered hundreds of thousands homeless by levelling large swathes of their communities.

Source: DigitalGlobe/UNOSAT, via Associated Press

France, like Sweden, has allowed the AKP to campaign on its territory, with Foreign Minister avuolu disparaging the Netherlands as the capital of fascism at a rally in the border city of Metz on 12 March.

The socialist governments permissive stance prompted an indignant response from Marine Le Pen, the populist frontrunner for the first round of Frances upcoming presidential elections.

Why should we tolerate speeches on our soil that other democracies refuse? she asked on social media. No Turkish electoral campaign in France.

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Sweden Submits to Turkish Pressure, Authorises Pro-Erdogan Rallies - Breitbart News

BERLIN Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's push to expand his powers in an April 16 referendum is causing deep divisions in Germany's already fractured three million-strong Turkish community, splitting families and turning friends into enemies.

Emotions are running especially high after German authorities banned several planned rallies by Turkish ministers, citing public security concerns. Erdogan has branded such bans "fascist", infuriating the German government.

"My father is pro-Erdogan. When he turns on the television, I have to leave the room," one 22-year old German man of Turkish descent told Reuters in Berlin, where he is completing a year of voluntary work before starting his university studies.

Many of his friends' families have also been split by the looming referendum, said the man, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from ardent pro-Erdogan supporters or a ban on visiting Turkey.

Just down the street in Berlin's multicultural Kreuzberg district, bright red signs proclaiming "Hayir" - 'No' in Turkish - and "No to dictatorship in Turkey" have been ripped from a fence and now lie on the pavement.

Others are shocked by the efforts of German, Dutch and other authorities to prevent Turkish politicians rallying support on European soil for the referendum.

"It's completely right-wing and radical how the Turks are being treated here," said Ergun Gumusalev, another Turkish man, told Reuters in Cologne. "I'm actually opposed to Erdogan, but how can this be? Where are we living? We've been here for 50, 60 years, exploited like pigs ... and here's the thanks we get."

THREATS

Many Turks came to Germany as "Gastarbeiter' (guest workers) in the 1960s and 1970s and contributed to the country's postwar "economic miracle".

But the latest conflict has reignited debate about the integration of Turks in German society, and Chancellor Angela Merkel and other politicians are anxious not to import internal Turkish conflicts into Germany.

Ismail Kupeli, a political science professor at Ruhr-Bochum University, said he expected about 60 percent of the 1.4 million Turks in Germany who are eligible to vote in the referendum to back Erdogan, roughly the same percentage that backed the Turkish leader in the last presidential vote.

"Erdogan is trying to shore up support for the referendum here because polls show a narrow majority is against the measure in Turkey," Kupeli told Reuters.

"People are being told, 'Either you're for the president or you're terrorists ... Either you're for a strong Turkey under Erdogan or a weak Turkey that is under the thumb of the West.'"

Ahmet Daskin, project manager with the Foundation for Dialogue and Education, said his members had recently seen a big increase in hate messages on social media. The foundation is close to Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric accused by Erdogan of orchestrating last summer's failed coup in Turkey.

"It's much worse than it was a few months ago," Daskin said.

The group's leader, Ercan Karakoyun, is currently on a book tour across Germany, but his appearances must be coordinated with local police since he has received over two dozen death threats since the coup, Daskin said.

"Every time Erdogan ratchets up his rhetoric, the threats and harassment increase over here," he added.

A ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday that said companies in the European Union may bar staff from wearing Islamic headscarves or other visible religious symbols could further exacerbate tensions in the Turkish community.

"I think it's discriminatory and unnecessary because my headscarf doesn't limit my ability to work at all," Beyda Kokluce, a Turkish woman in Cologne, told Reuters.

"It will only make the situation worse," said a second woman, Gokalp Cerci. "Every person is free to decide what he wears at work, and setting up general bans for people won't accomplish anything."

(Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Reuters TV; Editing by Gareth Jones)

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group's leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said.

WASHINGTON The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee both said on Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine must not be lifted without drastic changes by Russia.

BRUSSELS/VIENNA Turkey has blocked some military training and other work with NATO "partner countries" in an apparent escalation of a diplomatic dispute with EU states, officials and sources said on Wednesday.

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Turkish diaspora in Germany divided by Erdogan's referendum - Reuters

Israeli ex-defense minister Moshe Ya'alon accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday of seeking a neo-Ottoman empire" while warning of growing instability in the Middle East.

Ya'alon, seeking to build a campaign to become Israel's next prime minister, spoke of his concerns while addressing regional issues in a meeting with foreign journalists.

The ex-minister accused Erdogan of pursuing "hegemony by establishing (a) neo-Ottoman empire using the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, not just within Turkey".

He also accused NATO-member Turkey of working against Western interests.

His comments came with Turkey and the European Union undergoing an explosive crisis after key EU members the Netherlands and Germany blocked Turkish ministers from holding rallies to back constitutional changes expanding Erdogan's powers.

Ya'alon named Turkey under Erdogan as one of three "radical" elements seeking to expand their influence in the Middle East, also mentioning Iran and jihadists such as the Islamic State group.

He said he believed the situation had evolved in that way because of what he called former US president Barack Obama's administration's decision to "disengage" from the Middle East.

"And the vacuum has been filled by these three elements struggling for hegemony in the region," he said.

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Ya'alon: Erdogan seeking to be 'neo-Ottoman empire' - Arutz Sheva

A large image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is held up outside the Turkish Consulate during protests in Rotterdam, Netherlands, March 11, 2017.

Author:Mustafa Akyol Posted March 14, 2017

On March 13, Blick the third top-selling newspaper in Switzerland, came out with a giant headline in an unusual language: Turkish. Vote no to Erdogans dictatorship, the title read, appealing to the Turks living in this small country. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the paper argued, was seeking to establish dictatorship with the upcoming referendum on April 16. And Turks living in Switzerland, who enjoy the freedoms of this liberal nation, should say no to this menace.

Back in Turkey, however, this headline quickly turned into yet another reason to vote yes for Erdogan. Pro-government media ran immediate stories condemning the Swiss paper in fact, Switzerland and all of Europe for imperialist hubris. They also called on all Turks to give their patriotic response by rallying behind the great leader. On social media, pro-Erdogan users reiterated their standard line: Europes enmity was not just against Erdogan, but in fact against Turks and Islam. This, a pro-Erdogan journalist even declared, is the war of the Cross against the Crescent.

This is the narrative one can read and hear every single day in Turkeys pro-government media. It is a narrative that explains every single tension with Western nations including the recent Tulip Crisis between Turkey and Holland, which could have been avoided if both sides acted more reasonably. It tells Turks the West is not really worried about Erdogans authoritarianism, which is only necessary for a nation under major threats. The West is rather worried that Turkey is becoming a powerful, independent, virtuous nation. Erdogan is just making Turkey great again, in other words, and that is why Turkeys quintessential enemy the West is all up in arms.

This very narrative itself is actuallyproof that Erdoganindeedis authoritarian, because it equates patriotism and Erdoganismand considers all Erdogan critics as enemies of the nation. The enmity against the West, in other words, helps intimidate all Western puppets within Turkey, which are basically all opposition circles.

One may wonder, however, why the West has so categorically become the main enemy for Erdogan and his supporters. Because when Erdogan first came to power in 2002, this was not the case at all. His Justice and Development Party (AKP), despite its Islamist roots, rather embarked on a mission to make Turkey a full member of the European Union. Erdogan was a frequent visitor to Western capitals at the time, and a sponsor of love fests between the East and West such as the Alliance of Civilizations.

This Western-friendly AKP was a product of two things. The first was soul-searching and self-reform among Turkeys Islamists. In a plenitude of meetings, panels, media forums and informal chats, Western concepts such as liberal democracy were discussed and accepted, whereas the anti-Westernism of the past called the National View ideology was abandoned.

But there was also a secondand more burningreason for abandoning anti-Westernism: It was the only way to survive the wrath of Turkeys secular establishment. This establishment, upheld by a draconian military and judiciary, had overthrown the AKPs predecessors for trying to take Turkey away from Ataturks Westernized vision. It could do the same thing again. The safest way to overcome this threat was to outdo the secular establishment in Westernization. That is why the AKP hung on tightly to the European Union rope, which really saved itself from any possible coup attempt in the first decade of the 2000s.

However, this pragmatic reason to cozy up with the West ended in the early 2010swhen Erdogan subdued the secular establishment and seized the state for himself. The EUsooneven began to look like a drag on his feet. His notion of democracy was limited to the ballots, and as he began to crack down on free speech, the gap with Europe widened. From 2013 onward, Erdogan even began to believe in a giant Western conspiracy to topple him, to which he responded with furious anti-Westernism.

That is why todays AKP is a far cry from the AKP of the early 2000s. Those who have stayed loyal to the partys intellectual founding including its grand names such as former President Abdullah Gul or longtime czar of the economyAli Babacan have all been sidelined. Erdogan rather created a new coalition of militant nationalists whose common call is to build a fully independent Turkey.

Islam or, more precisely, a kind of Islamic nationalism plays a great role in this latter-day AKP ideology. The West is depicted as not just the enemy of Muslims but also their very antithesis. Muslims are moral, honest, decent people, whereas the West is corrupt, degenerate and hypocritical. It is a typical case of Occidentalism, which just like its mirror image, Orientalism demonizes a whole civilization for the sake of its own biases and ambitions.

Notably, in this major anti-Western drive, which is likely to make Turkey a Muslim version of Vladimir Putins Russia, Erdogan has a major ally within the West itself: the Orientalists, especially Islamophobes. These are the people who, with their enmity against Muslims and their double standards over them, prove the Erdoganists right. One shining example is the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who led the Tulip Crisis on the Dutch side. Erdoganists are now busy sharing his anti-Islam remarks online, only to add: This is the real face of Europe.

If Europeans want to break this vicious cycleand the clash of civilizations it heralds, what they need to do is simple: Show that Wilders and his ilk, and the anti-Islamic ideology they represent, is not the real face of Europe. Show that liberal values are not lies and double standards, but true norms valid for everyone. Uphold freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly for all including the defenders of Erdogan. Be principled, in short, about Europes own principles.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/03/turkey-european-union-crisis-empower-erdogan.html

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How conflict with the West empowers Erdogan - Al-Monitor