The Los Angles Times — like other major media — is noting “How Turkey’s president went from Washington darling to ‘toxic asset’“: “Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once were the darlings of Washington, the cherished ally and a strategic barrier between Europe and the turmoil in the Middle East.

“But diplomats say Erdogan’s increasingly aggressive and undemocratic behavior in Turkey, plus what they describe as his mercurial role in the conflict in neighboring Syria, have diminished his standing in the Obama administration.

“Unlike several other global leaders arriving in Washington on Thursday for the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, Erdogan has not been invited for a private sit-down with President Obama, something many here view as a major diplomatic snub.

“However, Turkey’s escalating assaults on Kurdish villages — driving much of the undemocratic behavior — are widely ignored. See recent on-the-ground report in The Nation: “Turkey Is Fighting a Dirty War Against Its Own Kurdish Population.” See from January in the Guardian: “Turkey rounds up academics who signed petition denouncing attacks on Kurds.”

KANI XULAM, kani at kurdistan.org, @AKINinfo
Xulam is director of the American Kurdish Information Network. He recently wrote the piece “A Kurdish Girl’s Lonely Death,” for CounterPunch.

He has helped organize a protest in front of the Brookings Institution (where Erdogan is scheduled to be speaking) on Thursday beginning at 11:30 AM along with other groups — see: “Obama Must Urge an End to the Onslaught on Kurds During Turkish President’s Visit, Says Amnesty International USA.”

Xulam is continuing a vigil outside the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. — now in its eleventh week — protesting Turkish attacks on Kurds.