When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, its founder, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared like a devout Muslim seeking to eliminate corruption and improve the standard of living of Turkish citizens.
During the last 13 years, Erdogan gradually turned into a corrupt despot, assuming the airs of a modern-day Ottoman Sultan. Was he a wolf in sheep’s clothing to start with, or was he spoiled by the international community’s blind support and lavish praise? Notably, President Barack Obama had called Erdogan one of five world leaders with whom he felt especially close. Obama and other heads of state have finally realized that the monster they created is out of the bottle and out of control! The primary victim of misplaced trust in Erdogan was none other than Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
To show how arrogant Erdogan and Turkey’s top leaders have become, here are excerpts from their recent public pronouncements, as documented by The Middle East Media Research Institute:
In a speech on January 21 at the Parliamentary Union of Islamic Countries in Istanbul, Erdogan, sounding like an ISIS leader rather than president of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member state, urged Muslim countries to “unite and defeat the successors of Lawrence of Arabia who seek to disrupt the Middle East.” He went on to accuse the West of plotting against the Islamic world and causing Muslims to kill one another.
During his recent visit to Djibouti, Erdogan boasted: “Turkey is a powerful country. If you [European Union] still see Turkey as a country that would beg at your [EU’s] door, Turkey is not a country to beg.” In response to earlier European criticism of media crackdowns in Turkey, Erdogan told EU leaders to “keep your insights to yourselves,” and added: “Take the trouble to come to Turkey, so that Turkey can teach you a lesson in democracy.”
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, while accompanying Erdogan on his African trip, shamelessly played the race card, telling the locals: “For the first time since the Ottomans left, Africans are seeing a white hand that does not exploit, enslave, or punch them in their heads; a white hand that does not exploit their mines, eliminate their values, assimilate them, or see them as subhuman. They are seeing the white hand of Turkey, which sees them as equals and as brothers…. We are trying to help the rebirth of these black-skinned but warm-hearted people.” Kurtulmus was probably hoping that his African listeners would be unaware that Erdogan frequently uses the derogatory and racist term “zenci”(black) to describe lower class people!
Not to be outdone by Erdogan and Kurtulmus in arrogance or religious fanaticism, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a large Turkish gathering in Zurich last month: “Islam is Europe’s indigenous religion, and will continue to be so. Despite the roadblocks, prejudices and many provocations, Turkey will continue to walk on the road to EU membership…. With Allah’s grace, we will never bow our heads. We are the grandchildren of the heroes who fought at Gallipoli, who never bowed their heads. In 2002, when we came to power, they [EU] said that Turkey was too poor, too weak a country that would become a burden on Europe. Thank Allah, today Turkey is the rising power of the world…. We are not a burden for Europe. Turkey is the cure for Europe! Turkey is the cure for their disease of racism. We are the cure to their economic slowdown. We are the cure to their loss of power…. From Andalusia [Spain] to the Ottomans, and, half a century ago with the holy march of our people who came here from every corner of Anatolia, the sound of the azan [Muslim call to prayer] brought these heroes to Europe. The domes of the mosques with which they dotted this continent will be protected; we will continue to fight against the hands that reach out to harm them. I kiss the foreheads of my brothers who carried the Tekbir [the prayer call ‘Allahu Akbar’] to Zurich…. How holy those people were who came and sowed the seeds here which will, with Allah’s help, continue to grow into a huge tree of justice in the center of Europe. No one will be able to stop this!”
Davutoglu persisted in making absurd and arrogant statements last week, this time in Ankara, telling minority representatives: “We will teach a lesson to racists in Europe.”
Harut Sassounian
“Was he a wolf in sheep’s clothing to start with, or was he spoiled by the international community’s blind support and lavish praise? ”
I think it’s easy to point the finger at Erdogan and claim he was always a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s also easy to blame the international community for their undying praise of a “moderate Islamist government.” The only people to take the blame is ourselves (Turks). We put him in power, we re-elect him, we reward his corruption and neo-Ottoman fantasies with votes.
We have no concept of democracy. Even during the secular past, we always dealt with left/right conflict with coups and military control rather than try and solve them through the democratic processes that existed. We don’t value democracy, we value power. We (“we” being the majority, not a blanket statement on Turks) don’t value LIBERAL democracy; we content ourselves with majoritarianism. No minority rights, no real religious freedom, no real freedom of expression attest to this. For a long time the majority, though fairly religious, bought into Kemalism through institutionalized validation of what Ataturk stood for. Now things have changed; now the majority support what Erdogan and AKP stand for in principle. Now the secular Kemalists are crying out, now they criticize the government and the issues of freedom that exist. I have zero sympathy for these so-called “progressives of Turkey.” The secular regimes were the ones that ruthlessly persecuted Kurds (“mountain Turks”), Alevis, Armenians, Greeks (1955 pogrom), Jews (Varlik Vergisi), and the more religious parts of our society (including the childish headscarf ban that lasted until 2010). Where was their concern for minority rights, religious rights, and freedom of expression then? Doesn’t matter when YOU aren’t the one being persecuted does it? Just look at Today’s Zaman. When Erdogan was buddies with Fetullah you couldn’t find an article that criticized AKP. Now that things have changed, the editor of TZ has the audacity to complain about freedom of speech when the newspaper magically seemed to go silent whenever a journalist would get imprisoned or threatened by AKP before the rift.
So to answer the question “who is responsible for turning Erdogan into a fanatical tyrant?”
80 years of alternating periods of sham and failed democracy. No respect for minority rights on either side of the political spectrum. The concept of a real democracy never taking hold in people’s minds. The never ending creation of in-groups and out-groups, where those with differing opinions (like me right now) are traitors to the state. We’re all to blame. Yes, Erdogan is a fanatical tyrant. But do we deserve any better? That should be the questions we ask ourselves.
You are totally right, over a period of time, in Turkey, we have elected parties and had a political system that lead to some guy like Erdogan to gain power. It is our responsibility that we have elected parties like the AKP in power, thanks to such things as CHP ruling for 2+ decades, numerous coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and post-modern coups in 1993 and 1997, as well as attacks on Leftist Movements (which led to the PKK insurgency) and denying the rights for people to speak their language. We the Turkish people come in different ethnic groups and need to take pride into it. Also, we should protect Christians, Jews and other religions too. But, in order to have real rule of law restored in Turkey, we need to turn to our neighbor to the west (Greece) to seek inspiration. Let’s look at SYRIZA for instance.
Good analysis RVDV.
Interesting comment about TZ.
I have been reading TZ regularly and the change is very noticeable: before Erdogan crackdown and after.
Also interesting: the comments policy was changed drastically after the crackdown; became much more restrictive, and the volume of published comments went down drastically.
HDN went all out and stopped accepting comments altogether.
This is just a conjecture, but I sense both are terrified of authorities, in case the wrong word gets published, and their staff gets arrested for “insulting” someone or other in AKP.
RVDV,
Your critique of Turkish attempts at democracy are at both unique to Turkey and at the same time universal. It can be applied anywhere in this world. The democracy a country ends up with depends on what the people want out of their government and if they’re willing to speak up and hold it accountable. Even the most hard-lined leadership is sensitive about a disgruntled and dissatisfied public and they will try to respond to it even if in a half-hearted manner.
Turkey is in need of your awareness and take on democracy as you’ve expressed here.