I do ultimately want to see all nations have the right to choose their leaders, but my issue with Turkey doesn't have to do with a lack of democracy.

My issue with Turkey is that we get to choose between ultranationalist butchers and anti-American shits. Both deny the Armenian genocide and actually seem to somehow blame the victims. It's horrible and unconscionable. I don't see either of these as a good alternative.

I also fail to see what Russia has to do with any of this. Russia has recognized the dark pages of its own past - President Medvedev recently made yet more statements about the brutal murders and Gulag system, and there are monuments in Russia erected to the memory of the victims of Stalinism. As in virtually any country, yes, there are people who deny the past or seek to whitewash it, but it is not a crime in Russia to "insult Russian-ness" or publish books that expose the full scope of the Terror, the brutalities of the Red Army in Russia's Civil War or nearly any other act of evil committed in Russia at any time.