Erdogan and Orban - The Ottoman and the Crusader... Against the Idiocy!

How a Liberal Dissident Became a Far-Right Hero, in Hungary and Beyond

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/world/europe/viktor-orban-hungary-politics.html

BUDAPEST — During the final days of communism in Hungary, a young, liberal dissident wrote to a foundation run by the Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros, asking for a grant to finance his research into grass-roots democracy.

Hungary would soon “transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the student wrote in 1988. “One of the main elements of this transition can be the rebirth of civil society.”

The student was Viktor Orban. Now the prime minister, Mr. Orban is expected to lead his party to victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday — not as the pro-Western statesman he once promised to be, but as a hero to the far-right, a scourge of civil society (and of Mr. Soros), and the embodiment of the failed promise of liberalism in post-Cold War Eastern Europe.

Each country has its own story. But societies across Central and Eastern Europe are dominated by similar figures — some by politicians who, like Mr. Orban, have lost interest in the liberal democratic project that followed the crumbling of communism in 1989, and others by those with different motivations who have exploited voters’ growing disaffection with liberalism.

“It’s a regionwide phenomenon,” said Jiri Pehe, a former senior aide to Vaclav Havel, the first Czech president. “Democracy proved to be a very difficult project for this generation of politicians to master.”

In the early 90s, as prominent dissidents such as Mr. Havel and Lech Walesa in Poland entered office, it was widely assumed that the region would transition naturally into democratic states and market economies. Voters expected that living standards would soon match those in Western Europe — especially as many former communist countries moved to join the European Union.

Personal freedoms and wealth did increase, but the chaotic nature of the process, compounded by the global financial crisis in 2008, meant that expectations often outpaced progress. In some countries, the privatization of state assets was perceived as benefiting foreign investors and corrupt politicians more often than it did ordinary citizens.

Politicians sensed the mood, and shifted rightward. The current Czech president, Milos Zeman, was a liberal-minded dissident in the dying years of communism but now courts the far right. His prime minister, Andrej Babis, was never a freedom fighter but was elected last year on a populist platform attacking the perceived failings of the post-1989 political elite.

In Poland, the leader of the governing party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is a conservative who was once ostracized by the early leaders of post-communist Poland. But his nativist, autocratic ideas have gained currency as resentment over aspects of the transition set in when voters’ aspirations exceeded the pace of social and economic change.

“Kaczynski is a master of playing on bad emotions,” said Radoslaw Sikorski, who was foreign minister and speaker of the Polish Parliament during the government that preceded Mr. Kaczynski’s.

But no one exemplifies the angry direction of post-communist Eastern Europe more than Viktor Orban, whose journey from liberal academic to illiberal populist is starker than any of his regional contemporaries. He used the Soros grant to study the history of civil society at Oxford University, fought communism as a dissident from behind the Iron Curtain and then, as a center-right politician, helped to steer Hungary into the European Union and NATO.

Now Mr. Orban is a populist hero to Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former strategist, and the self-declared leader of a “cultural counterrevolution” that is dividing the European bloc he once fought to join.

“The worst nightmare, in terms of Orban-ism spreading, has come true,” said Gerald Knaus, the director of the European Stability Initiative, a Berlin-based research group.

The young Mr. Orban was a passionate dissident, famous for a 1988 speech in which he demanded that Soviet troops leave Hungarian soil. At another rally, Mr. Orban risked his life to protect another opposition leader, Gaspar Miklos Tamas, taking several blows to his head as he thrust himself between the police and Mr. Tamas.

He gave little hint of his future trajectory — save a cameo role in a student production of the German Absurdist drama “How Mr. Mockinpott Was Cured of His Sufferings”, in which he played a demagogue.

“It was not his aim to be a politician,” said Gabor Fodor, Mr. Orban’s former roommate and best friend. “He wanted to be an intellectual and to be a member of Hungarian intellectual circles.”

That all began to shift in 1990, with the approach of Hungary’s first democratic elections in half a century. Mr. Orban had co-founded a liberal youth group, Fidesz, that was reconstituted as a political party and won 22 seats in the new Parliament.

Appointed as the party’s leader, Mr. Orban spoke out against nationalism, defended civil society and opposed clerical influence in politics. But behind the scenes, his political ideology was beginning to morph — and he was beginning to exert greater control on the management of Fidesz.

By 1993, Mr. Orban had assumed overall leadership of Fidesz, redefined it as a more nationalist and centrist party and ruthlessly sidelined its liberal faction, headed by his now former friend, Gabor Fodor.

Quite why Mr. Orban changed is a matter of debate. Some contemporaries believe it was the genuine ideological shift of a young man whose politics were a work in progress. Others argue he grew resentful of cosmopolitan liberals.

But most feel that Mr. Orban’s transition was a pragmatic response to the landscape of Hungarian politics. Overshadowed by other left-of-center parties, Fidesz lacked a clear brand. By tacking toward the political center, Mr. Orban reckoned that his party could stand out.

Unlike most other Hungarian politicians of the time, Mr. Orban “thought about politics in a more professional way,” said Zsuzsanna Szelenyi, one of the Fidesz lawmakers sidelined by Mr. Orban in 1993. “He realized it was about power.”

Despite Mr. Orban’s machinations, Fidesz did poorly in the 1994 elections. He responded by shifting further to the right, turning Fidesz into a center-right Christian democratic party — one still open to Western and American ideals.

“The 1990s were wonderful for American diplomats,” said Donald Blinken, who, as the American ambassador to Hungary from 1994 to 1997, lunched annually with Mr. Orban. “Everyone loved us, the Cold War was won, and we thought it was this great period of peace and prosperity.”

But Mr. Orban kept growing more nationalistic — and, apparently, more religious.

Married in a civil wedding a decade earlier, Mr. Orban and his wife, Aniko Levai, renewed their vows in a religious ceremony in 1996. Gabor Ivanyi, the pastor who performed that second ceremony, has since become skeptical of Mr. Orban’s motivations. “He had to convince people, to win over the conservative right,” Mr. Ivanyi said. “He is an unscrupulous person.”

Mr. Orban finally assumed power in 1998, becoming prime minister for the first time at the head of a conservative coalition. (Voters were angered by the Socialist-led government’s handling of the struggling economy.)

For the next four years, Mr. Orban operated as a relatively orthodox center-right politician. His administration was tainted by minor corruption scandals, but his performance was mostly praised.

He brought Hungary to the brink of European Union membership and shepherded the country into NATO, an event he celebrated with a private dinner in Brussels attended by several of his mentors, including Zbigniew Pelczynski, his politics professor at Oxford.

It was his defeat in the 2002 elections that accelerated his pivot to the far right.

“They say that power spoils good politicians,” said Jozsef Debreczeni, an adviser to Mr. Orban after his first rightward turn — and later his biographer. “With Orban that wasn’t the case. It was the loss of power that did that.”

During an intense one-and-a-half days after the election, Mr. Debreczeni listened as Mr. Orban blamed his political demise on a partisan news media that needed to be reined in.

Mr. Debreczeni said that Mr. Orban had drawn one conclusion: “This democracy thing, where power can slip so quickly from you, was no good.”

“And from that point on,” Mr. Debreczeni added, “he spent his time preparing so that if he ever won power again, he wouldn’t lose it.”

The global financial crisis of 2008, coupled with increasing resentment of the Socialist-led government, eventually gave Mr. Orban that chance. The Socialists, who were also in power during the economic turmoil of the 1990s, were accused of squandering the political and economic potential of the transition from communism.

Mr. Orban reinvented himself as an outsider who promised to restore Hungarian control to an economy buffeted by external forces — a popular policy among Hungarians rankled by how privatization efforts after 1989 had allowed foreigners to take over parts of Hungarian industry.

“To understand the Orban phenomenon, you have to go back to 1989,” said Laszlo Andor, who was once Hungary’s most senior representative at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm. “People’s ambitions were not fulfilled.”

Elected by a landslide in 2010, Mr. Orban has steadily weakened Hungary’s democratic institutions while invoking the self-contradictory concept of “illiberal democracy” and hailing the autocratic governments of Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

To outflank a major far-right opposition party, Jobbik, he tacked further to the right on immigration. By 2015, Mr. Orban had cajoled several Central and East European countries to block the European Union’s efforts to resettle thousands of migrants fleeing violence elsewhere — and provided a template for a democratic backslide in Poland.

His influence then crept further west. He forged an alliance with Horst Seehofer, the new German interior minister; appeared with Geert Wilders, the Dutch nationalist politician; and became a frequent subject of praise during recent election campaigns in Austria that ended with a far-right party joining a coalition government.

Mr. Orban sees all this as nothing less than the march of history.

“What we are experiencing now is the end of an era: a conceptual-ideological era,” he said in a major speech in 2015, as he began to expand his international profile. “Putting pretension aside, we can simply call this the era of liberal babble.”

Benjamin Novak contributed reporting from Budapest, and Palko Karasz from London.

In spite of both sides are dissidents, one is islamist and other is christian, both sides are fighting for their liberty and autonomy to have their countries free from world bankers and philantropists.

Both countries suffer accusations of coup d'etat, both countries recive accusations of antissemitism, and both countries are suffering accusations on being part of an axis of dissidents of modern world, globalization, multiculturalism and anti migration.

Turkey is NATO allie but also is the only islamist country, that is the barrier to the USA projection, also, the Syria support by Turkey became pariah to USA projection in Eurasia. Eurasia is the McKinder projection, well, very basic to say, but Eurasia is the USA target since the begining! 

But there are two movements that Turkey are involved, the Eurasianism, they know that Russia is the leader of the pack, and they must support Putin, because the end of Era Putin is the End of the game for the anti-globalist, they must spawn someone to beware, Viktor Orban is the one alied now! Orban is the one great man, that became the pariah for the globalist!

The only thing that must be a little more clear is a dialogue with USA Neocon, both sides, in spite of USA Neocon has a projection to EU, they are anti leftist-globalists. Well, finishing the Obama work, and giving continuation to the projection, Trump bulldozer over EU, requested Russia again and left the G7 meeting, was a very great atitude!

The drop of many countries from NATO showed a little of weakeness of USA in nowadays to control the situation, anyway, the wheels of history must move, Europe cannot be in the shadow of NATO and financed by USA whole time, but anyway, they are all involved with the international bankers of Soros funds and other bankers from Israel and USA.

Merkel is the puppet for the Soros plans and Hungary barried this plans for now. That's the respect between Erdogan and Orban, both Crusaders and Ottomans are seeking the cultural influence of their past and regreting the historical elements to promote cultural identity.

Orban is not anti-islam, they protected their fronteers. Turkey is pro-islam, but they banned the migrators.

The dubious image or Erdogan makes him as seem as puppet of Israeli government, but they are into a diplomacy of peaceful conditions, between both countries and projection of Israel not surpass the fronteers of Syria. Orban also condemned USA attacks in Syria base, because the projection is going through the projection of Eurasia dominion.

The biggest problem of Orban and Erdogan is now Merkel, the puppet. She clearly is trying to open the fronteers of Europe to international financers and NGOs to procedure of a world government, but she is not totally silly, she is the face of the European order, economicaly and militarly, the hegemony of Europe, and a world government or an economic 'bloc' of Europe, for sure Germany will be dictating the rules.

Brining back, always I said, Haushofer was right, the division of Europe could be with the hegemony of Germany, except for the anti global governments.

The real composed problem is now, the end of Era Putin, end of Era that can put it into control. This private proxies involve Military projection and private military capability to go into long range attacks, also diplomacy disruption.

According to the Hungarian Spectrum:

http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/04/08/the-orban-media-on-the-u-s-air-strikes-in-syria/

In the Central and East European region, the article covered only Poland and Hungary. Poland approves the move because it considers “the United States the guarantor of world peace and order. There are times when one must react and when actual steps must be taken.” By contrast, this was one of the few times that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó struck a pessimistic note. Although “a U.S.-Russian agreement on Syria is not only in the interest of Hungary and Europe but the whole world … we have never been farther from such an understanding.” Judging from this statement, the Orbán government must be deeply disappointed with the way in which the Trump administration’s Russia policy is evolving. As for the use of chemical warfare, Hungary naturally “condemns it and hopes that it will not be repeated.” Szijjártó, unlike most of the journalists writing for the government press, didn’t question the Syrian government’s likely role in the chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, resulting in the deaths of 87 people. Even Viktor Orbán said a few meaningless words that carefully avoided any judgment on the attack one way or the other. He simply stressed the need for security and order.

According to the About Hungayr:

http://abouthungary.hu/news-in-brief/pm-orban-meets-patriarch-of-syrian-orthodox-church-to-help-christians-in-middle-east/

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has met with the head of the Syrian Orthodox Church to discuss helping Christians in the Middle East.

PM Orbán received His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II for a working lunch in the Parliament building to talk through ways of helping Middle Eastern Christians remain in their homelands and return to liberated territories.

During their meeting on Tuesday, PM Orbán promised assistance to establish university facilities in Syria, while in Iraq it is to contribute to the reconstruction of villages that have been destroyed in the war.

According to the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/12/turkish-president-threatens-to-send-millions-of-syrian-refugees-to-eu

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has threatened to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to EU member states, as Nato agreed to deploy ships to the Aegean Sea to ease the migrant crisis.

In a speech in Ankara on Thursday, Erdoğan stepped up his denunciations of western policy in the refugee crisis, confirming he had threatened EU leaders at a summit meeting in November that Turkey could say “goodbye” to the refugees.

 Well, Putin is not the savior of Europe, the biggest mosque in Europe is in Russia, they are the biggest Orthodox country in the world and they have world projection. But at least they preach the autonomy of the players. See that, the proxies against them are answered strategicaly. By diplomacy and media, not by firepower, except for being the largest firepower in world's today!

The problem of the globalist is the projection that they cannot put into some of the countries, Russia is one, they are trying through Ukraine, but it's not easy to acchieve the power, Macedonia is one satelite country that Globalists are trying to use against Russia, Hungary became the new barrier and Turkey, together Syria and Iran are being the wall in between middle East and Eurasia.

Being very superficial to this analysis, Global projection has some of the countries that are hard to break the barriers, in other places, Neocon is being the new old order that are trying to break the global projection through the national interests.

The Dialogue could be better than a proxy war between countries and mercenaries every side.

Orbán only European leader to congratulate Erdogan on Turkish referendum

https://budapestbeacon.com/orban-european-leader-congratulate-erdogan-turkish-referendum/

Turkey’s state news agency has revealed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán joined the ranks of leaders of several autocratic states as he congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a narrow referendum victory on Sunday.

The news was first reported by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency news wire which was noticed by Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet, as Orbán failed to inform Hungarian state news of his intentions. Congratulations were also extended by Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its minister Péter Szijjártó, who said at a press conference on Tuesday that Hungary “has nothing else to do” than to respect the results of the Turkish referendum. According to Szijjártó, Europe must avoid the dangers that could be posed were the migration agreements between the EU and Turkey to be jeopardized and therefore must accept the decision.

The historic referendum, which approved radical changes favored by Erdogan with a 51.4% yes vote, will grant him sweeping new powers by eliminating the office of the Prime Minister and transforming the country into a presidential republic, thereby clearing the way for Erdogan to remain in office as late as 2029. The changes will be the most drastic since the country’s foundation in 1923, and critics of the referendum result warn that it amounts to a vote for dictatorship, and reveals deep divisions within Turkish society.

Erdogan said at a victory speech in Istanbul on Sunday that he would “immediately” begin talks on the reinstatement of the death penalty in Turkey, a move that would end Turkey’s decades-long attempts to join the European Union. Szijjártó, while urging respect for Erdogan’s victory, warned on Tuesday that the death penalty is incompatible with European integration and unacceptable to the European Union.

European leaders have approached the issue with caution, mostly refraining from comment. Some leaders, however, expressed reservations about the vote: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leads the country with Europe’s largest Turkish minority, warned that the “tight referendum result shows how deeply divided Turkish society is and that means a big responsibility for the Turkish leadership and for President Erdogan personally.” 63% of German Turks voted in favor of the changes.

The European Commission has called on Turkey to launch a transparent investigation into alleged irregularities in the vote, and a Western official with knowledge of EU policy said, “There will be no call to Erdogan from the Commission, certainly not a congratulatory call. Turkey is sliding towards a semi-authoritarian system under one-man rule.”

A number of foreign leaders, however, have greeted the result with calls of congratulations to President Erdogan, including the leaders of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Qatar and Sudan. Prime Minister Orbán set himself apart from every other EU leader by calling Erdogan on Sunday to express his congratulations to the Turkish strongman.

United States President Donald Trump also called Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him on the victory, contrasting with more cautious comments from the U.S. State Department, which noted a finding by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe of voting irregularities and an “unlevel playing field” in the campaign leading up to the vote. The State Department urged Turkey to maintain open political dialogue between both sides of the issue. Erdogan initiated the referendum after an alleged coup d’état attempt last July.

VIKTOR ORBÁN AND RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN ARE THE BEST OF FRIENDS

http://hungarianspectrum.org/2013/12/18/viktor-orban-and-recep-tayyip-erdogan-are-the-best-of-friends/

Surprise! Yesterday late afternoon when most likely Viktor Orbán and his entourage, numbering some 120 government officials and businessmen, had already boarded the plane to Istanbul, the prime minister’s press department announced his trip to Turkey. The schedule was crowded. That same evening Orbán opened the Hungarian House, a cultural center, and a Hungarian trading center, both in Istanbul. And he still had energy to deliver a speech before Hungarian and Turkish businessmen about the great prospects that Turkish-Hungarian economic relations offered to both countries.

According to the prime minister’s website, Orbán’s speech was delivered in front of about 200 people, which leads me to believe that the Turks were in the minority at the event. However, those present could learn that “foreign capital is arriving in Hungary at an exceptionally fast pace” and that the Orbán government “had already laid the foundations of a successful Hungarian economy of the future.” When I hear such brazen lies from Viktor Orbán, I really wonder whether perhaps his ambitious plans for expanding Hungary’s horizons toward the business world outside of the European Union falter in part because of such claims that lack any foundation whatsoever. Surely, the businessmen who attend these gatherings are well informed on economic and financial matters, and therefore they must know that it is simply not true that foreign capital is pouring into Hungary. In fact, exactly the opposite is the case. The same must be true about the business friendliness of the Hungarian government when all foreign financial papers are full of stories about the incredible governmental attacks on the banking sector and multinational firms operating in Hungary.

This morning he gave another speech entitled “Hungary and Europe in a Changing World” at the Marmara University in Istanbul, where he also received an honorary doctorate for his work on Turkish-Hungarian relations and for his efforts on behalf of Turkey’s quest for membership in the European Union. Here he expounded on his ideas about the future of the European Union which in his view will be successful only if it expands and includes Turkey and the Balkans. At the same time, member countries should have more say in conducting their own economic policy. He also claimed that the European Union’s “relations with Russia must be reevaluated.” Gépnarancs.hu reminded his readers that Gábor Vona was also a guest of the University only a month ago. He didn’t get an honorary degree, however, only a plaque from the dean of the university for his efforts at  reviving Turkish-Hungarian traditions.)

I mentioned only a couple of days ago that Péter Szijjártó, who by the way accompanied Viktor Orbán to Turkey, expressed his hope that the Israelis would take advantage of Hungary’s enormous gas storage facilities. It seems that  negotiations with Turkey to the same end were already under way. Magyar Földgáztároló Zrt. (Hungarian Gas Storage Corp.) and the Turkish Naturgaz signed a letter of intent. A similar agreement was signed between Eximbank, a Hungarian export-import bank, and the Industrial Development Bank of Turkey (TSKB). The Hungarians emphasized that the storage of Turkish gas in Hungary wouldn’t need any further work on infrastructure because the pipeline between Turkey and Hungary already exists.

Today the Hungarian delegation moved on to Ankara where Orbán met Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey. I do hope that he was well prepped and didn’t praise Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he obviously greatly admires. The night before at the opening of Magyar Ház he said: “Thirteen years ago, when I last came to Turkey, there was a different prime minister in the country and different politics. Now 13 years later, I can see huge differences, not only in technical terms, but also developments with roads and bridges, as well as high-speed train projects, buildings, and also the people who believe in their strength.” It is a known fact that Gül’s relations with Erdogan are anything but friendly, mostly because of Erdogan’s authoritarian rule. Only recently Gül hinted that he was prepared to challenge Erdogan, who is contemplating a run for the presidency next year. Erdogan has been prime minister of Turkey since 2003 and under rules adopted by his own party is barred from seeking a fourth term as prime minister. Therefore he has his eye on the presidency.

The joint press conference held by Erdogan and Orbán reflected their mutual admiration. These two are soul mates.

Hungary received a gift from Erdogan: Hungarians no longer need a visa to visit Turkey. In turn, Hungary made it as easy as possible for visiting Turkish businessmen, artists, and athletes to stay in Hungary for extended periods of time. In return, Erdogan promised that the Visegrád countries will be the most important trading partners of Turkey.

Orbán naturally emphasized Hungary’s support for Turkey’s integration into the European Union. He expressed his firm belief that Turkish citizens shouldn’t be required to have visas to travel in countries of the European Union. Such a gesture wouldn’t be a “gift but a sign of appreciation of the fantastic Turkish economic accomplishments.” Again, he went over the top when he announced that without Turkey’s presence in the European Union “it will be impossible to turn around the current economic tendencies” in Europe. Turkey’s message to Hungary is that “one’s own road is always the best road” to success. Finally, the Hungarian government will give 150 scholarships to Turkish students who wish to study in Hungary. One can certainly admire Orbán’s generosity when he vetoed all efforts at giving scholarships to Hungarian students. They can get only student loans.

Members of the two governments conducted the first meeting of the joint council of strategic cooperation just established between Turkey and Hungary.

MTVA, Orbán’s new organ in charge of funneling news to the Hungarian state television and radio, and TRT, the Turkish public radio and television, also signed an agreement. Another was signed by MTI and the Turkish Anadolu Agency. One should note that for the second year in a row Turkey jailed more journalists than any other country (with Iran and China close behind) according to an annual report released by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Forty journalists are currently in jail in Turkey. In Hungary, at least, no journalist has yet been incarcerated.

THE ODD MAN OUT IN EUROPE: VIKTOR ORBÁN IN ANKARA

http://hungarianspectrum.org/tag/recep-tayyip-erdogan/

Turkey seems to hold a special place in Viktor Orbán’s heart. Ever since he became prime minister for the second time around in 2010, Orbán has gone out of his way to court the country he considers to be an important factor in world politics. From the very beginning, he supported Turkey’s membership in the European Union, an event that is not likely, especially in light of the domestic developments in Turkey over the last four or five years. By 2013, Orbán had succeeded in establishing a strong bilateral relationship between the two countries. In that year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Budapest with 125 Turkish businessmen in tow. In 2012, the volume of trade between the two countries was only 1.7 billion dollars, which Orbán said he wanted to increase to 5 billion dollars by 2015. In December of 2013 Viktor Orbán visited Ankara. By that meeting it was eminently clear that these two men are soulmates. I covered that meeting at some length.

During the four years that have elapsed since Orbán’s visit to Ankara, Prime Minister Erdogan amassed more and more political power until a military coup d’état in June 2016 gave him the opportunity to get rid of his opposition altogether. A year later he pushed through a number of constitutional amendments that awarded him sweeping powers. Democratic leaders looked upon the results of the referendum as a setback for Turkish democracy and were anything but enthusiastic. Not so Viktor Orbán, who phoned Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory. Orbán genuinely welcomes the kind of system Erdogan established as a consequence of these constitutional amendments.

Orbán’s second visit to Ankara this week highlighted the political friendship between the two heads of state. Orbán and about half his cabinet participated in a “joint Hungarian-Turkish cabinet meeting.” Holding such a meeting is a big thing in diplomacy and signifies especially close relations between the two countries. Before 2010 the Hungarian and Romanian governments used to get together quite frequently, but Orbán stopped the practice.

As is usual with such visits, the program is pretty tight. For instance, it is customary for the visiting prime minister to deliver a speech at a business forum. So, let’s start with this speech, especially since four years ago the plan was that by 2015 trade between the two countries would reach 5 billion dollars. As it turned out, the trade numbers came nowhere close to this goal. In the last four years there has been practically no growth in bilateral trade between Turkey and Hungary.

How did Orbán try to sell Hungary to the Turkish businessmen? Why should Turkey, a large and powerful country, care about small Hungary? There is one important consideration. Hungary “with a population of 10 million can produce 110 billion dollars’ worth of exports” while “Turkey with 80 million people generates 145 billion dollars’ worth of exports.” The manhandling of export figures is, I think, quite obvious. I also wonder how the Turks in the audience responded to the implication that their business abilities and economic successes were inferior compared to little Hungary’s. The second drawing point, in Orbán’s opinion, is the very low across-the-board business tax rate and government incentives given to investors that may mean an effective tax rate of less than 9%. Third, Hungary is part of the European Union, and “if someone enters Hungary he also enters a market of 500 million people.”

I found Viktor Orbán’s advice to the Turks on how to deal with Hungarian businessmen fascinating. It is important to know, he said, that Hungarians are very sensitive. “I suggest not provoking Hungarians when you want to have a business deal. It is very important not to lecture them [because] Hungarians are like the Turks. They don’t like to be lectured at.” Turkish businessmen ought to show them respect because “after all, Hungary might have a population of only 10 million but it has a thousand-year-old history.” Turkish businessmen also should praise Hungarians because that is very helpful in business. I found the whole speech bizarre.

Hungarian sources didn’t report on the speech of Binali Yildirim, the Turkish prime minister, at the same business forum, but a summary of it is available in the English-language pro-government newspaper, Daily Sabah. He was less optimistic about Turkish-Hungarian trade relations than his Hungarian counterpart. He complained that although both Hungarian and Turkish incentives are attractive, the growth in trade hasn’t reached the desired level. Although the Turkish newspaper’s English prose is not the clearest, in my reading Yildirim talked about 500 Turkish businessmen who have invested more than $100 million in Hungary while nearly 40 Hungarian investors have invested $10 million in Turkey. This is nothing to brag about. These are meager figures. I gained the distinct impression that the Turkish prime minister is not optimistic about the prospects of improving the current situation because he suggested that perhaps Turkish and Hungarian businessmen could cooperate in third countries instead. He was specifically thinking of African nations.

Binali Yildirim and Viktor Orbán had an hour-long conversation, after which they gave a joint press conference. The Hungarian prime minister thanked Turkey for its struggle against terrorism and migration, by which it is not only defending Hungary but the European Union as a whole. Unfortunately, not too many people in Europe realize that, but Hungary definitely does. Turkey must remain a strong and stable country with a clear, unequivocal leadership, which in this case means an autocratic if not dictatorial regime under Erdogan. We also learned that while the Hungarian government is doing its best to expel Central European University from Hungary, Orbán was negotiating with the Turks about a Turkish-Hungarian university. And while the Orbán government is trying to limit the number of Hungarian students attending gymnasium and wants to send them to trade schools instead, the two prime ministers were talking about establishing a Turkish-Hungarian bilingual gymnasium.

Binali Yildirim was preoccupied with Turkey’s gripes over the stalled negotiations with the European Union and its demands for visa exemptions. Turkey is obviously hoping to use Orbán to advance its own agenda. “Visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to Europe would make a big contribution to improving bilateral relations between Ankara and Budapest,” and in fact he called on Orbán to take steps toward instituting a visa-free status in the EU, at least for Turkish businessmen.

The Hungarian media didn’t spend much time on this trip. Most news sites were satisfied to reprint MTI’s factual description of the visit’s highlights. The only exception was a short editorial that appeared in today’s Népszava. The author, Mária Gál, points out that instead of forcing an unnaturally close, fruitless economic cooperation with Turkey, the government should encourage businessmen in Romania and Hungary to invest in areas where cooperation would help the lives of the local population. For example, in Gyula, only a few kilometers from the Romanian border, there are no job opportunities and a lot of people live just above the poverty line, whereas in Arad, less than an hour away, it is difficult to find employees for the new industrial parks. Romania has a large market and has been developing by leaps and bounds. Why not invest in and foster good relations with Romania? And “we wouldn’t have to be ashamed of that cooperation,” indicating that Hungary should be ashamed of cooperating with Erdogan’s Turkey. But Budapest rejects Bucharest’s “request to renew the previous practice of joint cabinet meetings because the Romanians trample on the rights of the Hungarian minority. Turkey, I guess, became our friend because of their exemplary treatment of their Kurdish minority.” Biting sarcasm well deserved.

Erdogan follows Orban’s playbook and targets Soros

https://ahvalnews.com/recep-tayyip-erdogan/erdogan-follows-orbans-playbook-and-targets-soros

Turkish president Erdogan said that the opposition in Turkey has many Soroses backed by both inside and outside forces during a speech he delivered on Friday addressing to Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial heads.

“We understand from their hands and feet entangling that they now set their hopes on June 24. Don’t forget, the opposition has many Soroses in this country and those are Soroses not only supported from inside the country, but also from outside. We know very well who they are and which sources feed them,” Erdogan said, referring to U.S. billionaire George Soros.

Erdogan’s words echoed today in the pro-government press, with his comments on Soros appearing on the first pages of several newspapers.

Turkey’s pro-government press has long accused George Soros of having secretly financially supported the 2013 Gezi Park protests, the biggest demonstrations against more than a decade of Erdogan’s rule.

In Oct. 2017, President Erdogan called Osman Kavala, the jailed Turkish philanthropist and rights activist, “Turkey’s Soros”.

“The identity of this figure called 'the Soros of Turkey' has been uncovered. That was his name that came up in the (U.S.) Consulate General (investigation). All connections have surfaced,” Erdogan said following after Kavala’s arrest.