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Erdogan continues to stir the pot in Turkey

Erdogan’s suggestion that if the AKP had gotten 400 deputies in the June elections, then the turmoil and violence in the country today would have been avoided, causes outrage and increases tensions.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a conference in Ankara, Turkey, Sept. 3, 2015. — REUTERS/Umit Bektas

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is continuing to make his less-than-democratic ambitions clear, and in doing so increasing social tensions in a Turkey already torn asunder along ethnic and ideological lines, with the animosity between Turks and Kurds, and Islamists and secularists, increasing daily.

The rekindled war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which broke out shortly after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in the June 7 general elections, and the daily killing of soldiers and policemen by the PKK are pouring fuel on a potentially explosive brew that promises little other than political chaos for the country.

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