The macho president in democratic Islam´s big fat tuxedo

By Solin Hacador:

I am having difficulty with understanding Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan´s misbehavior towards the Gezi Park protesters. His violent behavior, exercising power arrogantly, looks like a macho man standing in democratic Islam´s big fat tuxedo.

Machismo and prolonged rule are, of course, two defining aspects of Erdogan—the strong-arm, charismatic, elected-dictator, whose successive incarnations have been the bane of Turkish political life.  The long and brutal dictatorships of the eighties exhausted public patience with military juntas; and the PM´s macho behavior over Gezi Park of Istanbul is exhausting public patience today. This side of the PM has been partly hidden from the public until now. He has successfully managed to practice his undemocratic politics since being in power. However, previously he could exercise his power in a sophisticated, technocratic way rather than being so openly arrogant and violent.

When macho man does not achieve his wishes, he applies the use of violence and it does not matter whether the victim is dead or alive. This is exactly the case in Gezi Park of Istanbul. What’s particularly interesting is Erdogan´s unreliable political behavior. He orders the use of violence through his police authorities. The Turkish police authorities do what they are told to do.

The Turkish prime minister is stuck in between democracy and radical Islam. How do recent developments in Turkey compare with protests in the Arab world, the Mediterranean and elsewhere?  There are so many differences.  Erdogan’s Turkey is a democracy – if genuinely it is so – while Ben Ali’s Tunisia and Mubarak’s Egypt were dictatorships. The Turkish economy is growing at 5 percent per year constantly, while the Mediterranean is in recession after long years of suffering and can barely stand on its economic feet. While Greece no longer makes the headlines as much as before, this is not because all is well in that country. Its critical situation is ongoing but Europe has turned its attention to Italy and Spain.

A revolt to overthrow a dictatorship is not the same as a protest against budgetary rigor. But sometimes emphasizing the differences serves to conceal rather than to learn. Let’s see if there are points of similarity.

Regarding the Arab world’s background: there is the old pyramid structure and also nothing is more conducive to protest and even revolution as the existence of a large population of young, educated people. On both issues the Turks are much closer to the Arab countries than the aging European countries.

In the current Turkish protests, the domestic press and television have responded slowly and poorly to the outbreak, not much better than happened in the Arab Spring. It seems that many journalists are scared to go deeper into the issue because 49 are in jail. However, the foreign media and press have been involved as they were in Occupy Wall Street and the movements of the ‘indignant’ Spanish and Portuguese young generations.

The Arab Spring and the threat of a Russian spring in early 2012 had their differences but also shared something in common: Members of the public wanted to overthrow dictatorial rule and end the divorce between institutions and citizens.

This type of crisis is most evident and explosive where the absence of freedom is absolute, as in the Arab dictatorships, of course. It is blatant but not as explosive in the Russian ‘sovereign democracy’ that Putin disguised. In this sense too, Turkish members of the public, and especially Turkish youths, want a divorce from macho government and to live in a genuinely democratic society.

Turkish PM Erdogan

The Turkish prime minister is caught in the trap of success. This success also brought his party to its most bright and rich stage. He is so proud of himself.  His dazzling political career has seen three successive majorities and the growing power of democratic Islam; and it has led the country to a path of continued growth in the decade that he has been in power; and it has placed Turkey on the map – emerging between the European Union, the Islamic Conference and the Atlantic Alliance, the complex central protagonist board where they join Europe, Central Asia and Middle East. But he has an intractable character. He is arrogant, intimidating and provocative. He has a hunger to remain in power and to avoid any form of checks.

With the current conflict Erdogan is rushing the country towards a dark future while also trying to re-establish the Turkish constitution. Erdogan wants everyone to be pious Muslims and exercise their freedom within strict compliance with the rules and customs established by Islam. However, he may realise that exercising power harshly will undermine his political future. I also assume the Taksim Square or Gezi Park protests may trigger the youth of Morocco or any other countries with a long macho political culture. It depends on how the dice falls. In any case, I hope the protesters achieve their wishes peacefully, and that Mr. Erdogan takes his lesson and does not exceed his power.

Abuse of power has never been successful anywhere in the world. It is obvious that the macho man in democratic Islam´s big fat tuxedo does not fit into the Turkish democratic picture. Turks, Kurds, Armenians and all ethnicities living in Turkey deserve to live peacefully and democratically and enjoy their rights.

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