The Turkish press is reporting that when President Obama visits Turkey (April 7-8), he will attend the “Alliance of Civilizations” conference, an organization created under Kofi Annan’s auspices by Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and advised by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, among others. His trip to Turkey comes at a time when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is cracking down on civil society, the media, and political opposition and slowly easing Turkey toward a Vladimir Putin-style dictatorship.