Despite the positive development in Pastor Brunson’s situation, Turkey – under Erdogan – is still a very long way from being a trustworthy member of the international community. Last month the Turks re-elected the power-hungry president and his AKP Justice and Development Party. As Caroline Glick pointed out at the time ~

Sunday’s election served as an endorsement of the constitutional changes that Erdogan forced through the Turkish parliament last year. Those reforms, which transform Turkey into a presidential system and cancel the office of the prime minister, provide Erdogan with unfettered power to govern by fiat. He can pass law by decree, call for elections at any time, appoint anyone he likes to any position he wishes, and declare a state of emergency whenever he wants for however long he likes.
 

Under the circumstances, whether or not the AKP controls parliament or not has become far less important than it was before the constitutional amendments were passed. Under the reformed constitutional system, the parliament is powerless to check Erdogan’s power.

So essentially, Turkey is now an Islamic dictatorship ~

Erdogan’s emasculation of the parliament is the final stage of his seizure of absolute power. Over his 15 years in office, Erdogan has assumed control of the Turkish media; banking system; judiciary; civil service education system; major industries;, and, most recentlt, the military. There is literally no independent power source capable of challenging his will.

 
 
Even the Left knows that the Turkish president is a tyrant, as some of the more delusional among them have, in recent days, recklessly compared Trump to Erdogan. Of course it’s an absurd implication, even for mind-numbed progressives. Donald Trump is hardly driven by a radical ideology, pursuing expansionist aims ~

Erdogan has made no attempt to hide his goals. He has already transformed Turkey. When he rose to power in 2003, Turkey was the secular republic republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the aftermath of the fall of the Ottoman empire at the end of World War I […]
 

Erdogan’s new Turkish Islamist state harbors active ambitions to reestablish the Ottoman empire. To that end, Erdogan, a vituperative antisemite, has become a major sponsor of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group and Muslim Brotherhood branch that controls the Gaza Strip.

 
Glick’s main goal her June 28th piece was to convince the U.S. not to go ahead with a planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. The country may still be a member of NATO, but Erdogan is not our friend. Under his leadership…
 

• Turkey served as a major purchaser of Iranian oil and gas in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions barring purchase of Iranian oil and gas exports.
• Turkey has cultivated jihadists as allies, Erdogan has spurned Turkey’s traditional allies — Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
• Turkey’s relations with the U.S. have become frosty. As he cultivates mass hatred of Jews in Turkey, so he has cultivated anti-Americanism. Television shows, bestselling books, and other cultural outlets are geared towards instilling deep-seated hatred for America among the Turks. And it is working.
• Turkey is demanding that the U.S. abandon its Kurdish allies in Syria and transfer control over the Kurdish enclaves in eastern Syria — including the town of Manbij, where U.S. Special Forces operate jointly with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces — to Turkish control.

 
Furthermore ~

Erdogan has gone to great lengths to cultivate closer ties to Russia. Russia has supported Turkey’s assaults on the Kurds in northern Syria. And Turkey has signed a deal to purchase Russia’s S-400 surface to air missile system. The latter deal lit every possible red light in Washington. As a NATO ally, Turkey is required to purchase systems that are interoperable with NATO platforms. The S-400 is not interoperable.
 
Moreover, if Erdogan chooses to, once he receives his order of 100 F-35 combat fighters, he will be able to share the stealth technology with Russia and China and thus endanger the viability of the U.S.’s fourth-generation jetfighter.

Currently, Congress does seem opposed to the F-35 transfer ~

(B)oth the House and Senate opposed the deal in their versions of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
 
The Defense Department has 90 days from the bill’s final passage to submit a report to lawmakers explaining the strategic value of selling the jet to Turkey, a member of NATO. Until that time, deliveries of the fifth-generation fighter to Turkey will be on hold.

 
President Trump has threatened to impose “large sanctions” on Turkey over its continued detention of Pastor Brunson. Even though the American pastor’s situation has eased somewhat, the administration has not backed down.
 
Even if Erdogan does relent and release Brunson, transferring F-35s to his increasingly belligerent regime would be a serious mistake. As Glick concludes ~

Why would the U.S. sell its top warplane to a regime that seizes U.S. hostages, busts UN sanctions, and demands that the U.S. abandon its closest allies in Syria?

 
Great question.

 
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Related:

Trump, Pence to Erdogan: Release Pastor Brunson or face sanctions