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After brutally quelling massive domestic protests against his increasingly despotic rule, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now facing another serious problem: His unexpected \u2018success\u2019 in uniting Arabs and Jews against him!<\/p>\n
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The Turkish Prime Minister had already antagonized Israel and Syria with his hostile actions and statements. In recent days, he also managed to offend millions of Egyptians by rejecting their new government after Pres. Morsy was deposed by the military. Despite Erdogan\u2019s professed objection to the overthrow of Egypt\u2019s \u2018democratically elected President,\u2019 it is evident that he is far more concerned about saving his own neck, fearing a similar takeover by the historically coup-prone Turkish military.<\/p>\n
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Last week, Aleppo University stripped Erdogan of his honorary doctorate in international relations, awarded to him in 2009, when Syria and Turkey were enjoying a short-lived love fest. Khodr Orfaly, President of the University, accused Erdogan of instigating \u201cplots against the Syrian people” and using “arbitrary” violence against protesters in Turkey.<\/p>\n
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After losing an Arab award, the Turkish Prime Minister may next be deprived of the \u201cProfiles in Courage\u201d prize given to him by the American Jewish Congress (AJC) in 2004 for \u201cpromoting peace between cultures.\u201d In an article published last month in the Jewish \u201cCommentary\u201d magazine, Michael Rubin urged the AJC to revoke its award, describing Erdogan as \u201cHamas\u2019s leading cheerleader, a promoter of terrorism, and a force for instability in the region. Rubin further asserted that \u201cErdogan already had a history of embracing rabid anti-Semitism and harboring conspiracy theories during his tenure as Istanbul\u2019s mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rubin also criticized Pres. Obama for \u201ctoasting Erdogan\u201d and the 135 members of the Congressional Turkey Caucus for running \u201cinterference for Turkey\u2019s worst excesses,\u201d including \u201carbitrary arrests, police violence, launching tear gas into hotels and consulates, attacking the free press, launching anti-Semitic diatribes, and ordering the arrest of medical personnel.\u201d Rubin questioned the motives of these House members and wondered whether they \u201cenjoy the wining and dining Turkish authorities arrange on trips to Istanbul or Ankara as a reward for membership\u201d in the Turkey Caucus. He urged the members of Congress to \u201csuspend if not resign their membership.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rubin strongly advised the American Jewish Congress and other Jewish organizations to \u201cbase awards on lifetime achievement, not only wishful thinking. The risk of bestowing legitimacy on platforms that run contrary to the AJCongress\u2019 mission is otherwise too great. The AJCongress\u2019 award to Erdogan not only did not stop Erdogan\u2019s anti-Semitism, but rather it for too long provided cover for it. Perhaps the organization can now mitigate the damage it has caused — and also deflate Erdogan\u2019s buffoonery — by publicly revoking its award.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Regrettably, Rubin is nine years too late in criticizing AJC\u2019s honoring of Erdogan. Back in 2004, within days of the award ceremony, I wrote a column critical of AJC and its President Jack Rosen who had absurdly announced that his organization was honoring Erdogan as leader of \u201ca model Moslem country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Now that the whole world has seen Erdogan\u2019s true colors under the fa\u00e7ade of leading \u201ca model Moslem country,\u201d many others need to reconsider the awards they had lavishly heaped on this undeserving leader.<\/p>\n
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For example, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) should revoke its prestigious \u201cCourage to Care Award\u201d presented to Erdogan in 2005. On that \u2018happy\u2019 occasion, the Prime Minister pointed out to Abraham Foxman, ADL\u2019s National Director, Turkey\u2019s \u201cclose relationship with Israel,\u201d and pledged \u201czero tolerance\u201d for \u201canti-Semitic diatribes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Here are some other honors given to Erdogan that should be rescinded:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
State Medals:<\/p>\n
— Russian state medal from Pres. Vladimir Putin (June 1, 2006)<\/p>\n
— Crystal Hermes Award from German Chancellor Angela Merkel (April 15, 2007)<\/p>\n
— Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award of Pakistan (Oct. 26, 2009)<\/p>\n
— King Faisal International Prize for “Service to Islam” (Jan. 12, 2010)<\/p>\n
— Georgia’s Order of Golden Fleece (May 17, 2010)<\/p>\n
— Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi\u2019s International Prize for Human Rights (Nov. 29, 2010)<\/p>\n
— Kuwait\u2019s “Outstanding Personality in the Islamic World Award” (Jan. 11, 2011)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Honorary Doctorates:<\/p>\n
— St. John’s University, New York (Jan. 26, 2004)<\/p>\n
— European University of Madrid (May 18, 2010)<\/p>\n
— Moscow State University (March 16, 2011)<\/p>\n
— Shanghai International Studies University (Apr. 11, 2012)<\/p>\n
— University of Algiers (July 5, 2013)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Honorary Citizenship:<\/p>\n
— South Korea (February 2004)<\/p>\n
— Iran (February 2009)<\/p>\n
— Kosovo (November 2010)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All those who have honored Erdogan have simply dishonored themselves. The sooner they revoke their accolades, the sooner they will redeem themselves from their disgraceful acts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After brutally quelling massive domestic protests against his increasingly despotic rule, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now facing another serious problem: His unexpected \u2018success\u2019 in uniting Arabs and Jews against him! The Turkish Prime Minister had already antagonized Israel and Syria with his hostile actions and statements. In recent days, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}