Turkey Takes a Tumble

Turkey used to be almost Western.  It had a very moderate form of Islam and the military Generals would make sure that no crack-pot Muslim would get into leadership and start talking about destroying Jews and taking over the world for the glory of Allah.

Now look what's happening as Turkey moves towards it's final role in Ezekiel 38.

The world is finally catching on to what the skeptics in Turkey were saying all along.

For the better part of 16 years, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a self-styled economic reformer and the world’s great hope for Muslim democracy, had a compelling story—and for most of that time, everyone bought it. Everyone, that is, except Turkey’s old guard—the secular establishment, the billionaires, generals, and educated elites who stood to lose their monopoly on power, wealth, and influence.

The old establishment hadn’t done well by the rest of the populace or the economy. When Erdogan’s party swept to victory in 2002 on pledges to open markets and liberalize institutions, Turkey’s economy was on life support, requiring an international rescue package that topped $20 billion. The lira had collapsed, along with a handful of banks and government efforts to contain raging inflation.

Voters demanded change. They got it. For most of Erdogan’s years in power, Turkey appeared to be in a golden age. Istanbul, a global crossroads for centuries, exuded optimism. Restaurants and clubs popped up like mushrooms. Entire new districts for the arts and nightlife seemed to sprout overnight. Young Turks educated abroad returned in droves to start businesses and make their fortunes. Turkey hosted international summits and, with Spain, became a co-sponsor of a United Nations-backed effort to forge international, intercultural, and interreligious dialogue and cooperation. It was captivating. So much so that a visitor could be forgiven for believing that under Erdogan, the city finally had a chance at living up to Napoleon Bonaparte’s comment: “If the world was only one country, Istanbul would be its capital.”

Now, however, it looks like Turks got more than they bargained for. After a run that brought in more than $220 billion of foreign investment, tripled gross domestic product, and returned inflation to single digits, Turkey’s economy is again ailing—its democracy even more so.

With the nation heading to snap elections on June 24, the lira is sinking, inflation is running at double the central bank’s target, and companies are struggling under more than $300 billion in foreign debt. Turkey’s ranking on nearly every index of democratic governance has plunged. There’s no longer talk of a peace process with Kurdish separatists. Buoyed by a seeming imperviousness at the polls, Erdogan has become ever more autocratic, his style of leadership more personal, prickly, and intolerant. He has ruled using emergency law since a failed military coup in the summer of 2016, jailing more journalists than any country in the world and widening censorship powers to include the internet.

In May 2013 a plan to destroy a 9-acre green space in central Istanbul, a city that had been ravaged by a decade-long orgy of construction, set off what would become known as the Gezi Park protests. Unwilling to let himself become a victim of popular unrest, Erdogan used heavy-handed police action against a smattering of environmental activists. It backfired and sparked a mass movement that saw demonstrations seeking to bring Erdogan down in nearly all of Turkey’s biggest cities.

Instead of the strong reformer, the world now saw a vindictive ruler whose actions exuded paranoia. Erdogan’s entourage floated conspiracy theories about the protests; one claimed that Germany had funded them because it was jealous of Turkey’s new airport. One adviser claimed that Erdogan’s enemies were trying to kill him using telekinesis. Police retook Gezi Park, but Turkey would never be the same. The end of the golden years was at hand.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-18/why-investors-have-become-skittish-about-turkey

The Bible has said all along that Turkey, Russia and Iran will spearhead a union that includes some North African-Muslim nations.  For the last few decades it was near impossible to see how Turkey was going to fall into such an unholy union.

And now we have militant Islam rising in Turkey and meetings with Russia and Iran to "discuss the region" are already on the books.  Cue the hatred of the Jews, the desire to destroy Israel and take Jerusalem for the Muslim empire and we would be really close to all kinds of prophesies being fulfilled very quickly.