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By Ali Manaz:
President Erdoğan
Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the new President of Turkey, elected on 12th August with a narrow margin of 52%. Many, both in Turkey and the rest of the world, are wondering what kind of President he is going to be. The reason that people are wondering is not because he is an unknown figure, but because he is a well known figure.
After twelve years of consecutive governing, the common perception in Turkey is that Mr Erdogan – and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) – have been successful on development but failed on justice.
With Mr Erdogan, Turkey is now the world’s seventeenth largest economy – thanks to the poor working conditions, non endorsement of relevant ILO conventions, and weakening trade unions.
But it was the new welfare system that he introduced for the poor and disadvantaged citizens which gave him consecutive victories. Social security, disability allowance, financial support for female students in primary schools and free health care bought the hearts and minds of millions of poor citizens and made Mr Erdogan an indispensable figure of love. Erdogan is for them what Clement Atlee was for poor British people after the Second World War.
These poor people are a significant part of what Erdogan categorised as “my 50%”.
The other part of that 50% are middle class Islamists and centre-right citizens who benefited from his policies, as well as Kurdish tactical voters who see him as Hobson’s choice for peace processes with the PKK, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
But for the second part, the “justice”, Erdogan has failed. In term of justice, freedom of speech, press restrictions, womens rights, Turkey now is tailing behind some of the notorious dictatorships in the world.
One aspect which has fuelled people’s anger is Mr Erdogan’s self-righteous imperative rhetoric. His Sunna-like suggestions are about every aspect of life. To him, married couples should have at least three children. Women should give birth by natural labour not caesarean. Young unmarried men and women should not share a home or flat. Girls should not sit on the laps of boys in public parks. People should eat wholewheat bread. They should not celebrate new year. They should not drink alcohol, and so on.
All of these were perceived by millions of – especially secular – citizens as an intrusion into their private lives and made him a love-to-hate figure for the other half of his citizens.
The other issue that made him a love to hate figure was Mr Erdogan’s polarising intolerance. Especially during last year’s Gezi unrest, which was sparked in Istanbul and spread all over the country. He used the notorious police organisation and heavy handling peaceful opposition, which fuelled the anger of citizens and damaged his reputation internationally.
With his notorious bad temper, during his premiership Mr Erdogan publicly rowed with all types of people: a 12-year-old boy, a farmer, a house wife, a young miner, the head of Turkey’s Law Association and Simon Perez, the President of Israel in Davos.
Rattling opposition leaders was his regular Tuesday’s activity at his group meeting in Parliament. He called main opposition CHP’s leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu honourless, a liar, plunderer, and coward for not publicly saying that he is Kurdish of Alevi sect.
He refers to the MHP National Movement Party as “baby opposition” and the leader of MHP, Devlet Bahceli, a fascist, racist and blood sucker.
He has been calling opposition MPs atheists and lawyers, Kurdish activists and Israel, terrorists. But nothing yet for ISIS.
His party, the AKP, was not free of his wrath as well. It is said that he actually slapped a minister after a heated argument. During a live broadcasting of a demonstration in Ankara, he shouted at his wife and hit the back of her hand, as Mrs Erdogan was trying to catch his attention to convey a message.
None of these stopped poor resolute supporters from loving him, or of him wining elections. After Mr Erdogan was elected as president on 12 August, a Turkish satirist said “Now I believe that… If Erdogan stands for Miss Turkey, he will be elected.”
After 12 years, with his all deeds and words Mr Erdogan is now facing a new challenge as the President. The Turkish constitution’s article 104, defines the President’s duty as: to be inclusive to represent the unity of the Turkish nation and to be impartial.
Being inclusive and impartial, will be President Erdogan’s big challenge, as old habits die hard.
Ali Manaz is a journalist, alimanaz@hotmail.com
Erdogan will make lasting peace with the state of Israel, grant 25 million Kurds their rights, agree to an independent Kurdish state in South, join EU and raise Turkeys economy to its peak in the history. He will be honored with a peace Medal.