Published time: June 08, 2013 00:17
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s hardline stance towards the ongoing anti-government protests will only serve to further damage his reputation and the Turkish model of a modern and functional Muslim state, foreign policy expert Barbara Slavin argues.
On his return from a four-day trip to North Africa on Friday,
Prime Minister Erdogan delivered a charged speech in which he
vowed to end the “illegal” anti-government protests which have
raged on since late last month.
He further pledged to carry on with plans to demolish Gezi Park,
the site of a small sit-in demonstration which snowballed into
mass, nationwide anti-government protests after police used tear
gas and water cannon to break up the small civil action last
Friday.
Although Ergodan’s fiery speech inspired the party faithful to
‘lay down their lives’ for the Turkish PM, his “tough guy
approach” will likely hurt both the prime minister and his
country in the long turn, Slavin told RT.
RT: What’s your impression of how Prime Minister
Erdogan is dealing with the protests against him?
Barbara Slavin: Well, so far I don’t think he’s doing a
very good job. This a huge blow to him personally — to his
image — and also to the Turkish model which he has been
touting around the Middle East as something that Arab countries
should emulate.
RT: Is his government united enough to prevent the
Taksim protests from undermining his leadership?
BS: No, I think the damage has already been done. As has
been pointed out, this was a small environmental demonstration
which turned into something huge after police used excessive
force against the demonstrators. It’s now spread throughout
Turkey, and what it’s shown is that there is now a great deal of
opposition to Erdogan personally and to the kind of creeping
Islamization he is trying to promote in Turkey. It comes just a
couple of weeks after he had a trip to Washington where he
bragged about Turkey’s economic success and again talked about
Turkey as a model. So I think it has done damage if you look at
what has happened to the stock market in Turkey, to the value of
the Turkish currency, clearly he needs to recalculate. I don’t
think this tough guy approach is going to help Turkey in the long
run.
RT: Erdogan is clearly sending the message that those
who are protesting against him are clearly in the minority. Do
you agree?
BS: I don’t think that’s at all clear and frankly, we will
find out if he goes through with his plans to run as president in
2014. He wants to change the constitution to create a sort of
imperial presidency, and then run for two terms as president.
This kind of behavior is alienating people who are religious as
well as those who are secular. So I think he’s taking a big risk
by deepening the divide among Turks.
RT: Let’s now take a look at the issue of popularity.
Erdogan has already spent more than 10 years in power and can be
re-elected an unlimited number of times. If he was getting things
in the country so wrong, why isn’t he being voted out?
BS: Well, it’s a parliamentary system, and the AK (Justice
and Development) Party has been the largest party in terms of
seats. But I wrote a piece for Al-Monitor this week talking about
the importance of term limits. I think most people around the
world understand that there is a limit to how long you can stay
in power. When you go beyond two terms, and in Erdogans case,
more than a decade, people begin to get tired of you no matter
what country, whether it’s an authoritarian country or a
democracy. He really should quit while he’s ahead, because
obviously, the longer he’s there, even people who were
predisposed to like him in the beginning begin to tire of his
manner of governing. He’s somebody who lectures, who sermonizes,
he doesn’t listen very well in my experience. And I think this is
really not a good model for a country to purports to be a modern,
Islamic democracy.
RT: At this point we can see a society that is divided.
There are people in the pro-Erdogan camp, and people who are
against him. How will these pro and anti-government protests
progress? Are we likely to see more confrontations between
them?
BS: I’m afraid so. It appears as if they are allowing
people to remain in Taksim Square; they are not using harsh
methods against them. Maybe they are calculating that people will
eventually drift away. As I said, I think this has left lasting
damage to him personally, and to Turkey, which of course has been
very successful economically, it’s attracted many tourists from
around the world. People may think twice now about going to
Istanbul if there is tear gas going up and down Istiklal Avenue
and in Taksim Square.
RT: A lot of Turks are proud of the fact that Turkey is
a secular state and Erdogan is now being slammed for the
Islamization of Turkey’s secular society. How much of this is
true?
BS: We’ve heard talk about legislation which would limit
when and people can buy alcohol and consume it in public, [as
well as] restricting abortions. He’s urged women to all have
three children, his wife wears a headscarf…there’s kind of a
pushing of that as well. I think that there are a lot of Turks
who are still loyal to the memory of Ataturk, and who do not want
to have this forced down their throats. They want it to be a
choice, not something that the government tells them to do.
This article originally appeared on: RT