![\"Supporters](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/opinionpost\/1f\/5d\/70\/00\/e-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nProtests in Turkey are the result of PM Erdogan abandoning his party\u2019s original program. The gap between election pledges and real action as well as Erdogan\u2019s personality cult has driven the Turks onto the streets, believes an academic interviewed by RT.<\/p>\n
\n The Turkish Prime Minister was pushing for reforms which people
\n \u201cweren\u2019t led to expect\u201d, according to Mark Almond, a
\n visiting Professor of International Relations at Turkey’s Bilkent
\n University in Ankara.\n <\/p>\n
RT:<\/b> We saw on Sunday perhaps tens of thousands of
\n people cheering Erdogan. It’s not all as one-sided as it’s being
\n made out to be, is it?<\/i>\n <\/p>\n
Mark Almond:<\/b> It\u2019s not necessarily one-sided, but it\u2019s
\n highly personalized. In the sense that this is the problem for
\n Erdogan as well as his hopeful trump card playing on the cult of
\n personality. Everybody who lives in Turkey, even before these
\n demonstrations, were seeing how inflight magazines as well as
\n political programs and posters emphasized Erdogan\u2019s personal
\n contribution to Turkey\u2019s success that has begun to unfold. But of
\n course it\u2019s dangerous for him precisely because the opponents all
\n say he must resign. For a Prime Minister that is the problem. And
\n of course mainly the people in his party, who are perhaps chafing
\n under his very heavy handed and dominant personality, may perhaps
\n now begin to feel like pulling the log from underneath him. He
\n would fall but the party itself would not.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n RT:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span> Erdogan has again warned that his patience MA:<\/b> I think it certainly meant to suggest to the peaceful RT:<\/b> These are protests against a legitimate MA:<\/b> Obviously, the police have a duty to protect people \n \n RT:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span> Erdogan also had harsh words for the West MA:<\/b> I think it\u2019s very striking, at this meeting with the RT:<\/b> Erdogan’s subordinates are cooling their MA:<\/b> I think Mr Erdogan himself has great difficulty in The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n is not limitless. What do you think he means by
\n that?<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>\n <\/p>\n
\n demonstrators, the large number of people who haven\u2019t been taking
\n part in throwing Molotov cocktails that they could find
\n themselves in the middle of a pitched battle and do they really
\n want that. On the other hand I think that the personality trait
\n of Mr Erdogan is that he is very stubborn. And he perhaps should
\n take into account that the same could apply to his opponents. Any
\n attempt to disperse them by force could well spark much bigger
\n trouble. Because we saw crowds greeting him at his three meetings
\n on Sunday. They were not huge crowds, they were not the scale of
\n crowds that perhaps he would have hoped to mobilize just ten days
\n ago had he needed to. And so there is a problem now for him that
\n his level of support does not seem to be the overwhelming 50%
\n that he could have called on before. As for the opposition, we
\n don\u2019t know exactly how many people support them, because we
\n haven\u2019t had elections, we don\u2019t have rival opinion polls. But
\n there are hundreds of thousands people who are taking part in
\n these anti-Erdogan demonstrations.\n <\/p>\n
\n leader, elected in a free election – and with majority support.
\n Isn’t he within his rights to tackle protests which turn
\n ugly?<\/i>\n <\/p>\n
\n and property from violence. The problem is that precisely Mr
\n Erdogan was elected by the large majority. But many of the things
\n he\u2019s done since he was elected weren\u2019t in his party\u2019s program.
\n People weren\u2019t led to expect them – were they these big property
\n development schemes that the government supports, but it does not
\n really publicize what they involve, or for instance his sudden
\n turnaround from being a friend of Assad, friend of Gaddafi
\n receiving presents from Gaddafi, to basically engaging in a very
\n cold war, now increasingly in a hot war with people he used to be
\n friends of in 2011, when he was re-elected. So we have to face
\n the problem that there\u2019s a sense of a gap between what his public
\n statements used to be and then the rather capricious \u201cI\u2019m now
\n making policy on the hoof\u201d. And that seems to be the case with
\n the Gezi Park. He now says it will be something more cultural and
\n acceptable. Maybe it will be. Why then he couldn\u2019t have said that
\n in the first place?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n![\"Anti-government](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/opinionpost\/1f\/5d\/70\/00\/e-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n saying the crackdown on protesters in Turkey was arguably less
\n severe than if it would have been in the EU or the US. Why’s he
\n lashing out internationally?<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>\n <\/p>\n
\n EU Commissioner Fule and others he was very harsh and in the way
\n he is trying to split the nationalist opposition, who don\u2019t like
\n him, because they say he is selling Turkey\u2019s interests by
\n negotiating with the Kurds, from what we might call more European
\n style opposition \u2014 sandal-wearing musicians playing at protest
\n meetings. He\u2019s trying to split those by saying: \u201cYou see, I\u2019m
\n against the European Union, it\u2019s pushing us around.\u201d And the
\n nationalists are against it. Whether that will work I\u2019m inclined
\n to doubt. He\u2019s been very careful to avoid saying anything
\n critical of the United States, though John Kerry did criticize
\n the original heavy handed police activities a weekend ago. And I
\n think one of his problems is that his international credibility
\n depends to a great extent on being seen as the Unites States\u2019 key
\n ally in the region. But now his Syrian policy has really
\n backfired. It was supposed to bring about a quick collapse of the
\n Assad regime and the replacement of Assad with something that
\n would be pro-NATO, pro-American and comfortable for Turkey. But
\n now Turkey has a huge problem on its border, huge economic
\n problems. It\u2019s not by chance that border towns have had big
\n demonstrations against him too. \u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n words. The governor of Istanbul even tweeted that he wanted to
\n JOIN the protesters. Are we witnessing the start of a change of
\n heart?<\/i>\n <\/p>\n
\n backing away from taking a rather bullish approach to any
\n opposition. But inside the AK party, there\u2019s a sign that
\n President Gul is not happy about that hardline rhetoric. Other
\n people in the party do not necessarily feel that Erdogan is
\n carrying out a sensible policy, that he may actually be leading
\n their party, their candidates in the forthcoming local elections
\n to a setback, and possibly they themselves could lose power. So
\n there is a big tension inside the ruling party that this whole
\n sudden crisis has revealed deep flaws in the Prime Minister\u2019s
\n management of public opinion, which had seen for the previous ten
\n years to be masterful but not perhaps any more.
\n <\/p>\n