A messy start for Erdogan
After questionable elections in 2015, Turkey’s President finds himself stuck in a complicated situation. Attacks in Istambul’s main Airport this week led us to believe Erdogan has no idea what the hell he is doing. Ever since the Ottoman Empire, Istambul has been a multicultural city. Home of different ethnical groups with different origins and religions, such as Jews, Armenians, Arabs, Catholics and Muslims, the Empire was a secular State. To reign such a polarised society must be hard and no one questions it. However, Erdogan's strive for power and legitimacy is going too far.
After being elected for Prime Minister in 2002, he was seen by most people as the best shot for Turkey’s democratisation process. His promise to improve tolerance and life conditions for minorities, mostly Kurds was seen as a big step towards a brighter future. European Union was finally being able to see Turkey with different lenses because of the Prime Minister’s apparent effort to secularise the country and due to his EU- oriented policies to approach the supranational economic block.
However, 10 years later, we are finally able to see how the politics of Erdogan developed to an authoritarian way to rule his country. In 2009 the scenario started to change and Erdogan started to focus more on his own power than to promote what he was supposed to achieve during his ruling years. After corruption scandals involving his inner circle supposedly leaked by Fethullah Gülen’s followers in 2013 and multiple attacks against minorities, we have to question the way Turkish politics is heading towards.
One of the most important aspects of a democracy is the freedom of speech. This is one of the most deficient areas in Erdogan’s government. ( When I say Erdogan’s government, I mean it. In Turkey, the President has more of a representative role in society and the Prime Minister is the one responsible for making political decisions and etc. However, lately PM has behaved more as Erdogan’s puppet and it looks like Erdogan is acting like PM all over again.) According to Reporters without Borders, Turkey occupies 151 spot among 180 in the 2016 World Press Freedom Index . Consequently, a significant number of foreign journalists have been deported, 2000 reporters since 2014 are standing trial because of their critical view on Erdogan’s politics and one of the most important opposition papers (Zaman) had their executors replaced and now is 100% government’s supporter. In this scenario, people are being accused of terrorism, espionage and of collaborating with terrorist groups, such as Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), who he aims to destroy.
Now, facing a very delicate moment after Bombings in Istambul, the President will finally be obliged to stop his (curious) tolerance with ISIS and to blame everything on the Kurds. Even though Turkey was supposed to bomb ISIS in Syria, it never did. On the other hand, coincidently, the country attacked a Syrian Kurd group that was fighting against ISIS. This is not the only example where Erdogan’s obsession with the Kurds went too far. The President has also accused Russia and the United Stated of collaborating with Kurds in Syria. Therefore, to send a message to Putin, he even bombed a Russian plane ( and only publicly apologised last week).
In addition, we also must ask ourselves what the actual position of the European Union is when it comes to Erdogan. Although he violates values that the Supranational organisation stands for, Merkel still avoids openly criticising him because of the polemic refugee agreement announced in March. The European Union wants more freedom of speech in Turkey and changes in laws that allow citizens and opposition to be arrested for sharing their views against the President. However, this statement only led Erdogan to suggest that if the EU is not happy about his government, Europeans should go their own way.
Where does this lead Erdogan then? Who are his allies and friends? Assad? ISIS? Israel? Merkel? With his way of ruling Erdogan will end up with no friends and nowhere to run to if things get ugly. It is time for him to see that his hands are tied and that his policies are being watched by everyone. If he does not start fighting real terrorism soon, his already messy start will start to get even messier.