A nation must think before it acts.
Dov Zakheim Quoted in Ahval on the Turkish Deep State
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump have often blamed a “deep state” within the government bureaucracy for undermining the president but Dov S. Zakheim in The National Times argues that it is in countries like Turkey where a true deep state exists, not the United States.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2013 said it was the deep state that launched investigations for corruption within his government. After the failed coup of July 2016 he blamed the deep state and supporters of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen and had thousands of military officers, civil servants and journalists arrested. Many of those arrested, however, had no apparent links to Gülen
“The Turkish deep state predates Erdoğan, though he has probably acted in response to the term more forcefully than any of his predecessors since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire,” argues Zakheim, a former U.S. under secretary of defense.