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It’ not so much a clash of religions as Western xenophobists want you to believe, it’s a clash of lberal secular society versus medieval patriarchal and authoritarian culture. It’s time for enlightenment in the Islamic world, rather sooner than later. Denying woman’s rights for education and personal freedom is not acceptable in the 21st century, not in Afghanistan but also not in Saudi Arabia, the Vatican or in red-states USA.
Turkey’s “majoritorial democracy” in action
(Zaman) June 2, 2013 – The events in Taksim have received wide press coverage internationally. As I was watching police brutality against protesters, I asked myself whether foreign policy experts will still refer to Turkey as a model, or as the current government prefers it as a source of inspiration after what happened. We live in a world where the line between what is domestic and what is foreign policy is becoming increasingly thinner. It is therefore surprising that despite general consensus that in matters related to foreign policy Turkey is becoming more active and influential, there is absolutely no consensus about domestic dynamics in Turkey.
A growing cohort is increasingly critical of Turkey’s human rights problems, lack of media freedoms and absence of judicial independence. This glaring Turkish paradox of worsening authoritarianism at home versus influence abroad was nowhere more visible than in the way the authorities used disproportionate force against protestors in İstanbul.
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At the heart of the issue, the problem is the absence of a liberal mindset in Turkey. Liberalism is not just about the ballot box and elections. It requires institutions that will change the patriarchal and authoritarian political culture in Turkey. In the absence of liberal institutions and a liberal mindset it is very hard to address the structural deficiencies of Turkish democracy. Rights and liberties, checks and balances, respecting the “other” and dissent, respecting the freedom to protest as freedom of speech, these are all virtues of a liberal system. Unfortunately, today’s Turkey, especially after Taksim, proves that it is still miles away from being a liberal democracy. Unless it becomes so, the risk for Turkey will be nothing less than the tyranny of the majority.
Turkey’s authoritarian ruler looks increasingly like an Ottoman Putin
(National Interest) June 6, 2013 – The Turkish prime minister has been revealed as a Putin-manqué, only slightly hampered by the fact he heads what is still a democracy.
The 21st-century version of an Ottoman sultan interprets a 50% majority as a mandate to rule as he pleases. Anyone who objects is a hooligan, a terrorist or a vandal, to use the recent epithets he has employed to describe protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
Under his watch, Turkey, ostensibly a secular state, has become steadily more Islamist with religious education mandated in schools; journalists have been clapped in jail (there are 49 behind bars — more even than in China); and women have been told to cover up and have at least three children.
Writing for the Huffington Post, Marc Ginsberg, a former U.S. ambassador in the Middle East, ponders the parallels with the Russian president.
Erdoğan’s reaction to Turkey protests reveals ominous Putin parallels
(The Guardian) June 11, 2013 – Erdoğan had hosted a European Union meeting in Istanbul. Rumour had it that Turkey’s prime minister would send in riot police to clear the demonstrators from Taksim Square – which they had peacefully occupied for 12 days — once his European guests had flown home.
And so it proved, with police encircling the square at 6am on Tuesday, firing rubber bullets and teargas, and ripping down banners calling for Erdoğan’s resignation. By happy coincidence, Turkey’s state media, which for days had blithely ignored the country’s huge anti-government demonstrations, were on hand to record the event.
Turkish TV viewers witnessed this: a small group of four or five “demonstrators” throwing molotov cocktails at police. At one point they advanced on police lines in a comic Roman-style phalanx while holding the flag of a fringe Marxist party. The “protesters” were in fact middle-aged undercover police officers, staging a not very plausible “attack” on their own for the benefit of the cameras.
Turkish PM gets angry with union head during critical Gezi meeting, calmed down by daughter
(Hürriyet Daily) June 15, 2013 – Erdoğan, who was meeting a delegation of 16 people, including members of the Taksim Solidarity Platform, artists and union representatives, lost his temper after an intervention by the General Secretary of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), Arzu Çerkezoğlu [first woman elected general secretary of union – Oui].
Çerkezoğlu told daily Hürriyet that she had pointed out toward the end of the meeting that Gezi Park had acquired a meaning that made impossible the perception of its redevelopment plans as a merely an architectural project, after Erdoğan told of his intention of going to a referendum if the appeal to the court’s decision suspending the construction at the park was upheld.
Çerkezoğlu added that tension arose when she said, “This has become about something more than Gezi Park. There is a clear social and sociological situation. You have to say something regarding this.” Erdoğan had reacted angrily to this, saying that he knew “sociology very well” as a politician, leaving the meeting room.
His daughter and advisor Sümeyye Erdoğan reportedly joined him outside the room and calmed him down.
- Arab Dreams for Adopting Turkish Model Up in Smoke at Gezi Park
- US embassy deletes Twitter response to Turkish PM about OWS deaths, but maintains stance
- Istanbul and Gezi Park: The Architecture of Change
