Harpoon Kvells Over Turkish 'Miracles'

Turkey's Erdogan was re-elected again, and Toronto Star man-on-the-scene Harpoon Siddiqui couldn't be more delighted. It's "a miracle," crows the paper's shill for all things Islamic, "only one of many in today’s Turkey." Harpoon claims that Erdogan's Turkey (home base for the Mavi Marmoset and the Gaza Flotilla II) is a model to be emulated by the country's dysfunctional neighbours. Writes Harpoon:

[Erdogan] is now the country’s most successful democratic leader ever. In leading Turkey away from its authoritarian and military-dominated past, he has made it the model for democracy-hungry Arabs, to whom he has lent strong support, including taking in 4,000 Syrians fleeing Bashar al-Assad’s butchery.

Another miracle is Turkey’s economy. At 9 per cent, its growth is second only to China’s and higher than India’s. Its $1 trillion economy is now not too far behind Canada’s.

The third miracle is Turkey’s emergence as a strong regional power. Its relations with the United States and Israel may be more strained since Erdogan’s election in 2002, but Erdogan’s independent foreign policy of “zero problems with neighbours” has normalized relations and increased trade with neighbours in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Black Sea basin...

"May be more strained"--quel drastic understatement. "Seriously out of whack and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future (or however long sharia-proponents like Erdogan remain at the helm)," more like.