When a Notorious Autocrat Gives Another a Stallion Record: This Innocent American Spent 48 Years Behind Bars

It was a strange sight. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received a black stallion from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during his visit to Budapest on Monday. “A gift from one riding country to another,” Orbán wrote on Facebook. Erdoğan smiled warmly but kept a safe distance from the animal. No wonder.

The Turkish president has had bad experiences with horses. In 2003, he was thrown from a stallion during a campaign appearance and then kicked by the animal. The video still circulates around the world and is especially popular among Erdoğan’s critics. The 69-year-old has since refrained from making public appearances.

Orbán was completely wrong in choosing a gift, but he sees Erdoğan as an ideological brother in spirit. Together they block NATO, and Hungary also paralyzes the European Union. It was the meeting of two government leaders who use blackmail to achieve their own political goals. There is therefore great anger and resentment in many Western countries.

Erdoğan in particular is causing headaches for his allies.

The Schrlatans join forces

It is no coincidence that Erdoğan and Orbán are currently publicly celebrating their “strategic partnership.” Turkey and Hungary are firmly anchored in Western alliances, both are members of NATO, Hungary is even in the European Union.

At this moment, however, there is one fact that unites them above all: neither of them wants to be the only blockers forever, completely isolated. Turkey and Hungary continue to maintain economic relations with Russia, Erdoğan and Orbán have an autocratic leadership style and are blocking Sweden’s accession to NATO. A closer alliance therefore makes sense; it is the charlatans who join forces.

Erdoğan’s visit to Budapest contrasted with his trip to Germany in mid-November. In Berlin, the Turkish head of state was not given horses. He was criticized for his incitement against the Israeli leadership after Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.

After a heated exchange with journalists at the press conference in the chancellery and after a short dinner with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), it was over again. Erdoğan’s visit was kept as short as possible by the German hosts.

Erdogan is failing

The Turkish head of state is currently in a huge dilemma. The West needs it to strengthen its ailing economy and Turkey was interested in good relations with Israel in order to benefit from the wealth of raw materials in the Mediterranean. All this has been off the table since the Hamas terror and the bombing of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

After initial hesitation, Erdoğan publicly supported the Hamas terrorists and described Israel as a “terrorist state.” He probably did this not out of ideological conviction, but rather to portray himself as a protector of Muslim Palestinians. And because the mood among the Turkish population is what it is: anti-Israel.

A new low, also for the Turkish president. For him, the past few months have been a symbol of failure: By canceling the grain deal for Ukraine, Vladimir Putin deprived his Bosphorus partner of a major diplomatic success. And Erdoğan was also unable to fulfill his promise to stabilize the Turkish economy. On the contrary, the lira’s decline against the euro continued in December.

Even the head of the emergency bank cannot find an affordable apartment

The economic situation in Turkey is dramatically bad. Many of the goods that the country has to import have become unaffordable for large parts of the population. It is a situation that damages Erdoğan’s personal popularity. Although he won the presidential election in the spring of 2023, the population first sent him to the second ballot. A warning shot for the AKP leader.

Local elections will take place in Turkey next year. These are quite important because they decide which party governs the major Turkish metropolises. In 2019, Erdoğan’s AKP lost power in Istanbul and Ankara, which the proud president wants to correct in the 2024 elections. But for that he needs absolute success.

Turkey needs foreign currency. This is also why Erdoğan appointed financial manager Hafize Gaye Erkan as head of the Turkish central bank. She would go on an advertising tour on Wall Street to raise money for the Turkish state.

But in Turkey, Erkan initially made headlines because she had to move back in with her parents due to expensive rents in Istanbul. This is also a symbol of the crisis.

Everything has become ‘terribly expensive’, the central bank chief criticized in an interview with the Turkish newspaper ‘Hürriyet’. “Is it possible that Istanbul has become more expensive than Manhattan?” No more expensive than Manhattan, but inflation in Turkey is enormous: in November inflation was 62 percent compared to the same month last year.

Supplies for the Turkish army

Erdoğan has problems, and in such situations he has often started conflicts with his Western partners in the past – as a diversionary tactic. But at the moment he can hardly play this card, because the Turkish army needs equipment, spare parts and ammunition from its NATO partners.

Germany in particular is a thorn in the side of the Turkish president. On December 3, the traffic light had only approved arms exports with a total value of 1.22 million euros. The export of military weapons was no longer allowed.

Erdoğan’s aggressive policies in the Mediterranean towards Greece in recent years, his active support for Azerbaijan in the war against Armenia and his current incitement against Israel have increased German reluctance. Moreover, despite all the loud expressions of solidarity to the Palestinians, Turkey offers hardly any financial aid compared to the Federal Republic, t-online learned from Western diplomats.

Erdoğan therefore has his back against the wall and now appears to be using his last negotiating chip: Sweden’s accession to NATO and the refugees from Syria, for whom he is keeping the EU borders closed. Now it concerns fighter planes, which Turkey urgently needs to modernize its fleet. The Turkish government would like to buy F-16s from the US or the Eurofighter from EU countries, but the West is hesitant.

Dispute over fighter jets

But when it comes to migration, Erdoğan does not want to risk escalation at this point; After all, Turkey is currently doing a lot to normalize relations with Greece due to economic interests. What remains is for Sweden to join NATO, which the Turkish president had actually already agreed to. Actually.

“Positive developments in the United States regarding the F-16 issue and fulfillment of Canada’s obligations will accelerate the positive attitude of our parliament (Editor’s note: on Sweden’s accession),” Erdoğan said on Monday evening, according to a state news agency report. Anadolu. “All of this is connected.” He sounds like a mafia boss now.

The blockade is notable because Turkey and the US have stated on numerous occasions that Sweden’s accession to NATO and the fighter jet issue are unrelated. Erdoğan now appears to have lost patience and is alienating his most important ally. The lira then continued to lose some ground.

In the area of ​​tension between foreign policy conflicts and the economic crisis in Turkey, Erdoğan visibly enjoyed his visit to Hungary at the beginning of this week. After all, Orbán recently passed a sovereignty law that severely restricts freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Hungary. The two heads of government have rarely been so close – brothers in spirit.

In the end, they both drove through the center of Budapest in an electric car that Erdoğan had brought for the Hungarian Prime Minister. “435 for one horsepower,” Orbán later wrote on Facebook, referring to his gift, the horse. “A good deal.” Erdoğan, on the other hand, has found an ally who is currently as committed to escalation as he is. This is bad news for Western unity.

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