Turkey Responds to Perry’s Debate Remark

Who knew that people in Turkey tuned into the GOP South Carolina debate or at least their government did.

CNN | Turkey Responds to Perry Remarks

Turkey’s foreign ministry condemned Texas Gov. Rick Perry Tuesday for saying that Turkey was a "country that is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists." Perry made the statement during a spirited debated between Republican presidential candidates in South Carolina Monday night.

Most of Turkey was fast asleep during the live broadcast, and Turkish newspapers had already gone to print by the time Perry declared that Turkey had moved "far away from the country I lived in back in the 1970s United States Air Force. That was our ally that worked with us, but today we don’t see that."

[...]

A spokesman for Turkey’s foreign ministry fired back Tuesday, accusing Perry of making "baseless and improper claims." In a statement e-mailed to CNN, Selcuk Unal said presidential candidates should "be more informed about the world and be more careful their statements."

"The unfortunate views of Perry are not shared in any case by Republican party supporters, considering the weak support he has received in public polls and primary elections," Unal concluded.

Apparently they hit up Real Clear Politics, too!

Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch adds

…Turkey is not ruled by Islamic terrorists. Turkey is ruled by Islamic supremacists who are working to dismantle Kemalist secularism and transform Turkey into a Sharia state. That is not at all the same thing, although Erdogan certainly shares the goal of jihad terrorists worldwide, which is to impose Sharia.