The Turkish Spring

Strategy Page 

June 10, 2013:

The biggest story in the Balkans is still the mass public protests in Turkey. The protests have increasingly focused on prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s arrogant personality and his politics of intimidation.  His penchant for making unilateral decisions, such as cutting down park trees in Istanbul, stems from his arrogance and self-righteousness. His relentless attacks on his critics, and his abuse of state power to silence his critics, are concrete examples of calculated, self-serving political intimidation by the prime minister.
A protest rally of some sort has occurred in virtually every Turkish province.

The demonstrators are a very mixed lot. The demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara have received the most coverage, which is logical since these two cities are Turkey’s media hubs. The demonstrations in these cities draw people from all social, economic, and –interestingly enough-political backgrounds. The protestors have a range of complaints which defy commentators who want to give them one neat political label. The common complaint is Erdogan’s self-righteousness, arrogance, and his increasingly autocratic behavior. 

The charge of arrogance links to perceived disrespect. Erdogan’s personal disrespect for his political opponents is expressed in his savage rhetorical attacks. Many Turks believe that Erdogan’s personal disrespect extends to any Turk who disagrees with any of his policies and decisions. Such profound and ingrained disrespect by the most powerful politician in Turey has led to disregard for civil liberties and the use of state power to silence his critics. Erdogan threatens critical reporters with lawsuits and criminal charges-and that is indeed a fact. He threatens opposition media outlets-another fact.

Less certain are accusations that his party identifies and punishes public workers who oppose Erdogan. Public workers, however, are certainly vulnerable to this type of party-line intimidation and Erdogan loves to intimidate. Demonstrating in the streets is a logical response to Erdogan’s attack on his opposition’s freedom of speech. The question is, will the anger expressed in the protests be expressed in the next national election? Erdogan has won three national elections in a row.

The next national election is scheduled for 2014. The combative Erdogan is now defending his government’s handling of the public protests. After returning from a diplomatic visit to four North African countries, he taunted his political opponents. Erdogan said his opponents have failed to defeat him at the ballot box. Now they participate in unlawful demonstrations. (Austin Bay)