Austrian far-right leader likens Turkish coup to Reichstag fire

Source: Reuters

Turkey's failed coup and President Tayyip Erdogan's subsequent purges of state institutions are reminiscent of the Reichstag fire in Nazi Germany and its use by Hitler to amass greater power, the head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party said.

The blaze in the German parliament building in 1933 was portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and it was used to justify curtailing civil liberties, consolidating Adolf Hitler's grip on Germany.

Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) leader Heinz-Christian Strache said he saw parallels in Erdogan's use of the July 15 coup by a faction within the Turkish armed forces to crack down on his opponents in the army, civil service, academia and the media.

"One almost had the impression that it was a guided putsch aimed in the end at making a presidential dictatorship by Erdogan possible," Strache told daily Die Presse in an interview published on Saturday.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-eu-austria-fpo-idUSKCN10H0BP