Erdogan’s response has been a political hara-kiri

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has none but himself to blame for turning an apparently innocuous pro-environment demonstration into a crisis. And in doing so, Erdogan has demonstrated how inept he has been in coping with the consequences of democratic freedoms his reforms have given to Turkey. In a fit of hubris perhaps he condemned the demonstrators as “looters”, “anarchists” and “terrorists” and he was wrong. The people who had gathered at Taksim Square were demanding preservation of a park where the government had planned to allow construction of a shopping mall. It was a peaceful demonstration that protested uprooting of trees. Pulling down Erdogan or his government was not on their agenda. It could have been defused with absolute ease had Erdogan and his government been rational and seen the rationale of the demonstrators. Instead, hubris came into play, Erdogan felt insulted, panicked for no reason and saw seditious intentions which weren’t there.

Turkish Prime Minister’s reading of the situation was wrong and unwarranted which only undermined his accomplishments and offered succour to a harmless impromptu demonstration. He committed a political hara-kiri and let the situation escalate by opting for high handed means to crush the demonstration. Overnight, Erdogan fell in popular esteem from a comfortable position of being a very popular leader to an autocratic zealot who isn’t least interested in listening to justified aspirations of the people. News pouring out of Istanbul suggests that ruling AKP is considering projecting President Abdullah Gul as the new face of the country. And if this happens Erdogan may even be replaced as the prime minister which analysts feel would probably be a good move to stem an escalating crisis snowballing into Turkish Spring.

Still now Turkey has not become Egypt and Taksim Square is not Tahrir. But the belligerence with which Erdogan responded to the demonstration has not only eroded his support base among Turkey’s “conservative Anatolian population of the rural heartland” but has also put the country at a critical crossroad. Erdogan can justifiably claim credits for Turkey’s impressive economic growth; he has made the country an important bridge between Europe and Asia and has placed Turkey as an invisible partner of both Europe and the United States on several critical global issues. His high handedness in dealing with Taksim Square demonstration has, however, made Europe rethink over its partnership with Turkey. And that may, in long term, prove disastrous for Ankara.

Erdogan’s defiant and belligerent response has not helped in containing the demonstrations. He is now seeing lengthening shadows of conspiracies which may or may not be true. But, on one fact there is no doubt. Turkish opposition has now found the handle which it has long been in search of to unseat an elected government. To the ruling party it is a snowballing threat which AKP isn’t very keen on overlooking. For the ruling party the options are few and replacing Erdogan is perhaps the best means to quell the popular anger which is fast turning into a conflagration across Turkey. Erdogan has chopped off the branch on which he was sitting.