During a historic visit to Ankara on Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani announced that his government and Turkey’s were determined to stand against together against violence and extremism in the Middle East.
Armenian condolences are part of a broader push by Turkey’s foreign ministry to steady a ship that has been rocked by the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly offered a conciliatory message for the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule during the First World War — the first time a Turkish prime minister has ever offered such explicit condolences for the atrocity.
In a speech to parliament on Tuesday, the leader assured lawmakers that the elections would be held without sparking tensions that could threaten the economy, in thinly-veiled warning to his opponents.
The surge in popularity of an anti-Sisi hashtag has been seized on by prominent Egyptian pundits as both evidence of the depravity of the military leader’s opponents as well as the necessity of a ban on Twitter.
The intensifying reaction to his government’s attempt to block the network is now threatening to eclipse the very scandal that prompted the ban in the first place.
A stocky military contractor and football club president convicted on charges of match fixing is emerging as a potent symbol of mounting popular anger against politicization of Turkey’s judiciary and police force, apparent rampant corruption in the country, secularism and opposition to the country’s powerful, rival Islamists factions.
Such tactics have done little to quell doubts among moderate constituents that Erdogan has swung full autocrat.
The Turkish prime minister’s visit comes in the midst of the unrelenting outrage around a corruption scandal embroiling his AKP government — a scandal in which Iran plays a starring role.
Hollande’s visit is the first by a head of state since mass protests broke out in Turkey last summer, followed by a brutal, and widely censured, government crackdown.
