It confirms that his blend of dynamic economic development and Islamism with Turkish characteristics is, for millions of voters, an attractive combination. However, Sunday’s result provides insufficient reassurance that he will use his new power to uphold democratic principles, observe the rule of law, steer the economy competently through challenging times and, where possible, improve relations with Turkey’s international partners and neighbours. To his credit, Mr Erdogan sounded a note of national harmony in his victory speech, proclaiming that all Turkish citizens, whatever their political allegiances, religious beliefs and ethnic origins, are sons and daughters of one country. Yet the longer he has dominated Turkish politics, the more illiberal his methods of rule have become. It is as if he imagines himself to be some benevolent potentate and his 77m countrymen to be passive subjects rather than citizens of a modern democracy. The paradox of Mr Erdogan’s 11 years in power is that Turkey is at once more prosperous and less free. This trend was visible even before the crackdown on last year’s Gezi park movement, when vast crowds demonstrated in Istanbul and other cities against Mr Erdogan’s imperious style of government. After that, the government maintained a ban on Twitter and YouTube in defiance of court rulings, before eventually backing down, and Mr Erdogan reacted truculently to corruption inquiries into his family, cabinet members and business associates. Similar high-handedness found expression in the government’s handling of a coal mine explosion last May, which killed 301 people in the town of Soma. Mr Erdogan has left Turks in no doubt that, as president, he intends to wield extensive executive power. But he lacks a large enough parliamentary majority to secure the changes to Turkey’s constitution needed to confer legitimacy on this plan. Nor is it certain that elections due by June will win him such a majority. If they do not, Mr Erdogan should resist the temptation to rule Turkey in a manner that lacks solid constitutional foundation. Even now, he could signal restraint by encouraging the nomination of a vigorous prime minister, rather than an AK party puppet, to govern in tandem with him. But these days Mr Erdogan is impatient with critics. In the election campaign, his opponents received a fraction of the air time that he enjoyed on state television. It was a stain on his success, for he was always certain to capitalise on his popularity with the pious, conservative electorate of Turkey’s Anatolian heartland. There, thanks to Mr Erdogan, people once ignored or derided by the secular elites of 20th-century Kemalist Turkey participate in public life and enjoy a share of the nation’s prosperity. However, if Mr Erdogan is to serve as president of all Turks, he must also show sensitivity to other voters, especially in the cities of the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, who are not social or religious conservatives and who cherish values such as freedom of speech and the rule of law.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 22:03:40 +0000
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