Howard Eissenstat

Not really an apt comparison. There are a lot of institutionalized ties between the US and Turkey at the routine bureaucratic, not the top, level. NATO, OECD, etc. Nothing similar in the Russian case. Not to mention far more integration in the private sector.

Excellent points and I agree. I was being too glib about an argument which often serves to dodge what I see as the fundamental nature of the shifts that have taken place

There's no doubt about the fundamental shift. But I'm not sure it follows that other ties should be severed as a result. One could argue that it makes institutional entanglements all the more important as anchors or checks on authoritarian whim.

We never see those entanglements and ties being used for democratic ends or to check further decay of democracy. They are used either to free some hostages of their own or secure some dirty economic or political deals. He knows this and acts accordingly to get what he wants.

Well one could only see how those entanglements had constrained further decay after they were removed and further decay happened. For example: OECD vote monitoring. It hardly ensures perfect elections, but I have a hard time seeing how its lack would be a boon.

To put it another way: there's not much evidence to suggest that such entanglements compel - or even greatly increase the likelihood of - *good* outcomes. But there is evidence to suggest that they reduce the odds of - even it they don't preclude - some of the *worst* outcomes.

This mindset, I believe, is shared by EU politicians to feed their complacency, while they are shrewdly manipulated by Erdogan to shut up about his destruction of rule of law. Doesn’t help unless democrats across the continent pressure their governments to prioritize rule of law.

Of course “better than nothing” logic prevents something, but it also buys his gang the time and confidence to destroy all what is left of democracy by giving a sense of indispensability. We won’t plea those complicit governments but democratic allies must surely pressure them.

A decade more of Erdogan will go by, but Turkish state will be around for hundreds of years. Would be a disaster to lose such a strong ally.

Paid for tweet by Soner. Squeeze the Turkish bastards.