Turkish Democracy - on the brink

[Husar]

There seems to be a growing conflict between certain EU nations and Turkey.

Austria denied speeches by Turkish politicians and made Erdogan angry:

http://www.thelocal.at/20170301/turk...ign-in-austria

Turkey has slammed Austria's "double standard" and "irresponsible" approach to potential campaigning by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the EU member state ahead of April's referendum.

Then some German town cancelled a rally planned by a Turkish minister, making Erdogan even angrier:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/06/turke...zi-period.html

Erdogan is furious over the cancellation of several political rallies aimed at drumming up support among Germany's large ethnic Turkish population for his plans to overhaul Turkey'sconstitution and win greater powers for the presidency.

On Sunday the Turkish leader accused Germany of "fascist actions" reminiscent of the Nazi era. Berlin says the rallies were cancelled on security grounds.

And then the Dutch wanted in on the fun and denied the Turkish foreign minister the right to land when he came to hold a rally there:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...nds-escalates/

Turkey and Holland engaged in an explosive diplomatic row on Saturday, with the Dutch government refusing to allow the Turkish foreign minister into the country and Turkey’s president in turn branding the Dutch as “Nazi remnants”.

I can't find any English news on it, but Austrian and German EU officials are already talking about freezing certain financial aid transactions which can be cancelled without entirely cancelling the membership talks. The Austrian PM called for an EU-wide ban on Turkish political rallies around Turkish statesmen. A lot of people think the membership talks should be cancelled entirely, 77% of Germans think Turkish politicians should not be allowed to come here to advertize their politics in Turkey and so on.
http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/...9160ec5b8.html
(Picture 13/18)

I personally agree that it is very strange to have foreign ministers come her to advocate foreign policy options, and it's even weirder that they throw a tantrum when we say we don't like it. Even worse of course if we look beyond their lies about how terrible we supposedly are and see that they are bombing one Kurdish town after the other out of existence, suppress the free press and so on. And then they say they are more democratic than we are...
There was even that time when Turkey banned German ministers from visiting German troops that were stationed in Turkey to help defend Turkey...

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ca...-turkey-media/

Turkey has earned an accolade which holds no glory: according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/10/...tment-refugees

Turkey’s once-open door with Syria is now a concrete wall and razor-wire where Turkish border guards are shooting and beating Syrian civilians trying to escape the violence. In a new report Human Rights Watch documents seven incidents since early March in which Turkish border guards killed five people, including a child and woman, and seriously injured 14 others, including three children.
[...]
But a Human Rights Watch investigation has already shown that the area Turkey markets as a safe zone is, in fact, more of a death trap, with ISIS military gains into that area forcing tens of thousands of Syrians once again to flee toward Turkey’s freshly cemented wall and trigger-happy border guards.

http://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/8/14...a-refugees-aid

More than 90 percent of Syrian refugees in Turkey are actually living outside of refugee camps, struggling to make ends meet, sometimes in the streets. And a News Deeply report last summer found that those in camps are uniquely vulnerable to exploitation, with many refugees being used as low-paid migrant farm workers. While Turkey was initially welcoming to Syrian refugees, as the crisis has worn on and the reality sets in that refugees will likely be permanent members of Turkish society, that welcome has begun to wear thin.

Which also shows how nicely the idea of refugees going to neighboring countries can work in humanitarian terms.
Either way, the country is really going down a terrible path it seems.
And given that they're officially our allies, should we respond in some way?