Ben Judah
Turkish premier’s battles against old elites are irrelevant, and his efforts to reframe protests as part of that struggle is misguided or
deluded.
By Ben Judah
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t get it.
He doesn’t understand that the crowd filling Gezi Park in the scruffy centre of Istanbul is the most precious creation of Turkey’s boom — an ambitious, creative, new generation. Erdogan doesn’t see the beauty in this kaleidoscope of mini-groups — Turkish and Kurdish, Marxist and Kemalist, Armenian and Islamist — all demanding that he listen to the public, rather than bulldoze Istanbul.
Instead he sees in Gezi Park protests the work of plotters and foreign bankers, the opposition Republican People’s Party — even a mysterious international “interest lobby.”
Erdogan is trapped in history. His battle against the clandestine networks of Kemalist generals — the moniker of the adherents to the secular legacy of the republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal — and their plainclothes allies, has been so long and bitter it has left him unable to see anything else.
Erdogan is angry. He won three democratic elections with an increased majority and believes — not incorrectly — he has made life better for the poor and made Turkey look more like them, less secular and more conservative.
Erdogan doesn’t get it because he is still fighting his last battle — the secretive civil war within the elite. He sees shadowy forces trying to unseat him among the 20somethings of Gezi Park because, until recently, there were forces out to get him. They were trying to topple his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
This tactical war rattled and embittered him — and he fought back to attain his goal of total victory.
In 2011, while the world was transfixed by the Arab Spring, AKP leaders moved to smash the military elite, unravelling a coup plot.
There were mass arrests — the numbers are huge. The plotters’ trials have now sprawled to take in 530 defendants and 8,000 pages of indictments — much, not all, fabricated.
The result is more than 15 percent of admirals and generals are in the dock.
Yet, just as Erdogan seemed to have finally defeated the “Deep State,” these protesters have appeared across Turkey, attacking his leadership and calling for his removal.
He must have felt blind-sided by spontaneous demonstrations because the last time similar mass protests in 2007 were organised by the military in alliance with the opposition Republican People’s Party.
Those protests brought hundreds of thousands out onto the streets to block Erdogan from winning the election. Gigantic crowds in Ankara and Izmir numbered more than 350,000 flag-waving secularists.
Erdogan smells conspiracy because, until 2011, politics has been nothing but conspiracy. These current protests stunned him since plans to redevelop Istanbul’s Taksim Square, erect a gigantic airport and gargantuan third bridge over the Bosphorus were part of the AKP election mandate in its recent big win.
There was never a secret, Erdogan’s men claim that voting for the AKP in the 2009 mayoral election and the 2011 general elections meant rebuilding Istanbul.
This is one key reason why Erdogan sees protesters as undemocratic, elitist losers, spreading chaos to undermine him.
Erdogan no doubt thinks he has behaved towards protesters like a perfect democrat. He does not see police actions as brutal or coarse — rather he compares them to the old security tactics of Turkey’s military past.
Erdogan doesn’t get it because he doesn’t listen. Like Russian President Vladimir Putin, his repressive paranoia has muzzled the media.
Newspaper columnists Erdogan resents have been sacked, while Turkish TV has been pressured, through government contracts and other cash matters, into broadcasting more or less what he wants to hear.
This became obvious during protests — documentaries on penguins were broadcast instead of live-feeds from Taksim Square. A score of national papers ran identical headlines.
Nor does Erdogan have anyone left to listen to. Advisers who might offer criticism or adversarial views have been pushed aside — and a court of sycophants has been enthroned. Leading AKP members worry about incurring Erdogan’s wrath. As a result, he is cut off from reliable information.
One leaked US cable revealed: “Erdogan reads minimally, mainly the Islamist-leaning press, instead he relies on his charisma, instincts and the filtering of advisers who pull conspiracy theories off the web or are lost in neo-Ottoman fantasies.”
Erdogan can’t grasp that the “Deep State” has gone. For this new generation in Gezi Park, Erdogan’s battles against old elites are irrelevant, and his efforts to reframe these protests as part of that struggle is misguided or deluded.
For them, Erdogan is no longer the victim — he is the state.
REUTERS
Turkish premier’s battles against old elites are irrelevant, and his efforts to reframe protests as part of that struggle is misguided or
deluded.
By Ben Judah
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t get it.
He doesn’t understand that the crowd filling Gezi Park in the scruffy centre of Istanbul is the most precious creation of Turkey’s boom — an ambitious, creative, new generation. Erdogan doesn’t see the beauty in this kaleidoscope of mini-groups — Turkish and Kurdish, Marxist and Kemalist, Armenian and Islamist — all demanding that he listen to the public, rather than bulldoze Istanbul.
Instead he sees in Gezi Park protests the work of plotters and foreign bankers, the opposition Republican People’s Party — even a mysterious international “interest lobby.”
Erdogan is trapped in history. His battle against the clandestine networks of Kemalist generals — the moniker of the adherents to the secular legacy of the republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal — and their plainclothes allies, has been so long and bitter it has left him unable to see anything else.
Erdogan is angry. He won three democratic elections with an increased majority and believes — not incorrectly — he has made life better for the poor and made Turkey look more like them, less secular and more conservative.
Erdogan doesn’t get it because he is still fighting his last battle — the secretive civil war within the elite. He sees shadowy forces trying to unseat him among the 20somethings of Gezi Park because, until recently, there were forces out to get him. They were trying to topple his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
This tactical war rattled and embittered him — and he fought back to attain his goal of total victory.
In 2011, while the world was transfixed by the Arab Spring, AKP leaders moved to smash the military elite, unravelling a coup plot.
There were mass arrests — the numbers are huge. The plotters’ trials have now sprawled to take in 530 defendants and 8,000 pages of indictments — much, not all, fabricated.
The result is more than 15 percent of admirals and generals are in the dock.
Yet, just as Erdogan seemed to have finally defeated the “Deep State,” these protesters have appeared across Turkey, attacking his leadership and calling for his removal.
He must have felt blind-sided by spontaneous demonstrations because the last time similar mass protests in 2007 were organised by the military in alliance with the opposition Republican People’s Party.
Those protests brought hundreds of thousands out onto the streets to block Erdogan from winning the election. Gigantic crowds in Ankara and Izmir numbered more than 350,000 flag-waving secularists.
Erdogan smells conspiracy because, until 2011, politics has been nothing but conspiracy. These current protests stunned him since plans to redevelop Istanbul’s Taksim Square, erect a gigantic airport and gargantuan third bridge over the Bosphorus were part of the AKP election mandate in its recent big win.
There was never a secret, Erdogan’s men claim that voting for the AKP in the 2009 mayoral election and the 2011 general elections meant rebuilding Istanbul.
This is one key reason why Erdogan sees protesters as undemocratic, elitist losers, spreading chaos to undermine him.
Erdogan no doubt thinks he has behaved towards protesters like a perfect democrat. He does not see police actions as brutal or coarse — rather he compares them to the old security tactics of Turkey’s military past.
Erdogan doesn’t get it because he doesn’t listen. Like Russian President Vladimir Putin, his repressive paranoia has muzzled the media.
Newspaper columnists Erdogan resents have been sacked, while Turkish TV has been pressured, through government contracts and other cash matters, into broadcasting more or less what he wants to hear.
This became obvious during protests — documentaries on penguins were broadcast instead of live-feeds from Taksim Square. A score of national papers ran identical headlines.
Nor does Erdogan have anyone left to listen to. Advisers who might offer criticism or adversarial views have been pushed aside — and a court of sycophants has been enthroned. Leading AKP members worry about incurring Erdogan’s wrath. As a result, he is cut off from reliable information.
One leaked US cable revealed: “Erdogan reads minimally, mainly the Islamist-leaning press, instead he relies on his charisma, instincts and the filtering of advisers who pull conspiracy theories off the web or are lost in neo-Ottoman fantasies.”
Erdogan can’t grasp that the “Deep State” has gone. For this new generation in Gezi Park, Erdogan’s battles against old elites are irrelevant, and his efforts to reframe these protests as part of that struggle is misguided or deluded.
For them, Erdogan is no longer the victim — he is the state.
REUTERS
