Political Change in Turkey Special
By Lonna Lisa Williams
After years of maintaining control in Turkey, Islamist Ak Party Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces student protests and speaks about stepping down.
2012 has been a difficult year for Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister. Justice and Development (Ak) Party Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has faced prisoner hunger strikes and many demonstrations by students and the general public. In just the last weeks of December, thousands of people held protests. Many of these protesters are university students who are tired of seeing fellow students, professors, journalists, and novelists put into prison for speaking against Erdoğan and his oppressive policies that hinder freedom of speech in Turkey.
Last week, Student protesters converged on Erdoğan’s visit to Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara. Police used so much pepper spray against them that the noxious gas drifted toward the Prime Minister. Kocaeli University students marched through the usually sleepy college town of Izmit and demanded liberty for victims of Erdoğan’s political imprisonment. They also disrupted a university meeting. Police used extreme force against student protesters in Istanbul.
Earlier this year, three students who simply held up a banner asking for free university tuition at a sports rally were given eight-year prison sentences. Erdoğan often labels those who oppose him as terrorists or backers of a coup. Even army generals have been put in prison under this tactic. Hundreds of prisoners went on a hunger strike this fall, putting further pressure on Erdoğan and drawing world attention.
Today on Turkey’s news station TRT1, Erdoğan looked worried and even a little frightened during a live interview. He stated that next year would be his last as Turkish Prime Minister.
“The press is reporting only bad things about me lately,” he said. “They don’t mention all the good I’ve done such as strengthening the economy of Turkey.”
Indeed, Turkey’s economy has seen growth under the Ak Party and Erdoğan. Yet, they have used tactics such as giving away refrigerators to poor families and iPads to students in a ploy that opposition leaders condemn as buying votes.
Erdoğan’s successor will likely be another Ak Party man because the Ak Party got most voter support in the latest (2011) elections. The Ak Party has been pushing pro-Islam legislation, such as requiring public schools to teach Islam more frequently to students and allowing mosques to be built on public university grounds—with tax-payers money. These principles go against the secular democratic views of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic which began on Republic Day, October 29, 1923.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposing party (and Atatürk’s party), has been extremely critical of Erdoğan this year. On Republic Day, October 29 2012, thousands of people turned out to celebrate Atatürk’s ideals of freedom of speech, religion, the press, and assembly despite the fact that Erdoğan declared all public celebrations of Freedom Day to be illegal. Police used water cannons and pepper spray against the crowd which was led by Kılıçdaroğlu who even suffered some irritation to his own eyes. Local news stations such as Haber Turk covered this event, and Erdoğan told his police force to back down–but not before Associated Press and other premier news sources brought these events to international attention.
Recently, clandestine listening devices (bugs) were found in Erdoğan’s home office. CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu called this wiretapping, “a grave situation.”
The tide seems to be turning in Turkey. Perhaps this will effect the United States of America. Supporters of Erdoğan have called him “best friends with President Obama.” Opponents have labeled Erdoğan as Obama’s puppet. In any case, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is worried.
“I’ve never seen Erdoğan look so subdued on public television,” one young Turkish man stated (his identity is protected for security reasons). “Usually he is yelling, but now you can tell that he is scared. Just look at his eyes. I don’t know who will be the new Prime Minister of Turkey, but he will probably be from the Ak Party. Thirty years ago in Turkey, when so many students began protesting, there was a sudden change in Prime Ministers and ruling parties. Erdoğan sees that his time is ending.”
via Political Change in Turkey (Includes interview and first-hand account).