"This is not to endorse ludicrous comparisons made between Taksim and Tahrir or even Tiananmen squares. Mr Erdogan is the prime minister of a republic, who has won three victories with a rising share of an increased vote. If he believes he is God’s gift to Turks and Muslims, that does not make him Hosni Mubarak or the Chinese Communist party. The problem lies elsewhere. After a decade in office, Mr Erdogan looks intoxicated by power. With no political and few institutional checks on his wilfulness, he appears to regard himself as consubstantial with the nation – alongside Mustafa Kemal, founder of the republic, better known by his title of Ataturk, or father of the Turks. But Ataturk was a great general, whereas Mr Erdogan is behaving like a general fighting the last war. He almost daily likens the present crisis to orchestrated instability preceding the military coups of 1960 and 1980, or the army’s last – and failed – attempt to unseat the AKP in 2007. “I request all activists to see the big picture, understand the plot and withdraw from the streets,” he said on Tuesday. But it is the prime minister who has lost the plot, like Lear upon the blasted heath, railing against filial ingratitude, “a man more sinn’d against than sinning”. Mr Erdogan appears not to understand the diversity on display in Taksim and dozens of Turkish cities, and that Turks who did not vote for him – as well as lots who did – refuse to be poured into his paternalist mould."
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:07:48 +0000
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