The Wrongologist

What’s
Wrong Today:

Turkey is a country that has been
portrayed as an example of democracy and progress in the Middle East. The
Wrongologist visited Istanbul in March, and wrote:

Here is a photo of
a street scene in Istanbul taken by the Wrongologist in March:

Turkey has been in the news this past
week because of the widespread government protests. The protests started in
Gezi Park to demonstrate against the “Taksim Project” that will eliminate a
green space in Istanbul to build another
shopping mall. By the way,
Prime Minister Erdogan’s son-in-law
holds the contract for
the renewal of the Taksim area. Taksim is a large square in the heart of Istanbul:

The embattled green space is not visible in the
photo above; it is to the left and behind the buildings at the left foreground
of the picture. The small environmental protest went nearly unnoticed, but when
police brutally intervened to let workers cut some of the trees the situation exploded.
Within a few days over 100,000 were out on the streets and clashing with police
forces. Most of those people did not come out to save Gezi Park but to
demonstrate against the kind of politics that it symbolizes. And the NYT reported that there was almost no press
coverage of the protests:

Most of the locals want the park to
remain a park and are against the larger project to “renovate” the
central Taksim Square. Taksim stands for May 1 demonstrations, the Ataturk
cultural center and common urban space.

June 3: Protesters heading to
barricades in Gezi Park

Many Turks see Erdogan’s plan for
Taksim as partly a “culture war”, since Taksim is a neighborhood with nightlife
and drinking, which Erdogan dislikes. Erdogan has called the protesters “a few
looters.” Thanks to social media, protests
have spread across the country and turned into a general
protest against government policies and in particular against Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The most widely chanted slogan of the protest is
“Tayyip, resign!”

During a press conference in
Tunisia, where he was on a state visit, Prime Minster Erdogan announced
he will continue with plans to develop Istanbul’s Taksim Square despite the
ongoing protests. Upon his return on Thursday, Erdogan accused the protesters
in Taksim Square of being related to terrorism and connected them to the recent
suicide attack against the US embassy in Ankara. Thus, he tries to delegitimize
the protests and play to
his party’s base.

Erdogan is the most
popular Prime Minister in the history of modern Turkey. His Justice and
Development Party (AKP) have won a majority in the parliament three times in a
row and their share of the vote has increased with every election. The party
got more than 50% of the votes in the last parliamentary election in 2011.

So, what went
wrong?

Erdogan’s view of democracy is that ballots
equal power. As his share of votes has increased, he has become more
authoritarian:

• He had the “friendship” sculpture at the Turkey-Armenia border demolished

• He declared “abortion is murder.” Although Turkey is a heavily
  Muslim country, abortion has never been a political issue before

• He has had journalists fired
  from their jobs when they wrote something he did not like. The number of
  journalists in jail right now is at a record high

• He signed new
  regulations that limit marketing and serving alcohol too close to mosques
  and schools. In a country where alcohol consumption is minimal, Erdogan called people
  who drink “alcoholics”

Juan Cole reports: Yalcin Dogan’s Survey from Hurriyet
Online on June 2 showed the following regarding the restriction of alcohol
sales:

• 60.8%
  said the restriction was an intervention into their way of life

• 34.7%
  said they consume alcoholic drinks

• 75.9%
  said the restriction on alcohol would not stop them from using alcohol

Erdogan still relies on “his 50%” of
the electorate and said he has difficulty keeping “his 50% at home” as protests
build in Gezi Park, and in most cities in Turkey.

Questions
from Hugh
Pope, long-time resident of Istanbul, former WSJ reporter and fluent in
Turkish and Arabic:

From
al-monitor.com:
Erdogan’s political fortunes hinge on how the government handles the crisis. Turkey
is not on the brink of a revolution. A Turkish Spring is not afoot. Erdogan is
not a dictator; he is a democratically elected leader who has been acting in an
increasingly authoritarian way.

Why
is a government whose policies consist in part of turning Turkey into a country
of shopping malls linked by highways not satisfactory to the Turkish people?

They
apparently prefer more freedom and less autocracy to more stores and roads!