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Is Erdogan a Democrat?

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  • Is Erdogan a Democrat?

    The New York Times
    November 2, 2013 Saturday
    The International New York Times

    Is Erdogan a Democrat?

    By MUSTAFA AKYOL
    CONTRIBUTING OP-ED WRITER; Pg.


    ISTANBUL -- There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether
    the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Enhanced
    Coverage LinkingRecep Tayyip Erdogan -Search using:Biographies Plus
    NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Daysis furthering democracy or rolling it
    back.

    Optimists argue that, thanks to the defanging of the long-dominant
    military, Turks now enjoy real democracy for the first time. Others,
    however, argue that Mr. Erdogan is becoming increasingly authoritarian
    after a decade in power and that Turkey is less free every day.

    Either of these opposing views can be persuasively substantiated -- if
    one carefully cherry-picks facts, which is what both Mr. Erdogan's
    supporters and detractors regularly do while ignoring all evidence to
    the contrary.

    If one looks at the rights of Kurds or of Christian minorities, for
    example, one will find plenty of reasons to praise Mr. Erdogan. He has
    carried out the most liberal reforms Turkey has ever seen on these
    issues, such as reopening historic churches, launching talks between
    government representatives and Kurdish militant leaders, and
    permitting schools and television stations to teach and broadcast in
    the formerly banned Kurdish language. In addition, laws have been
    amended many times to advance women's rights and the protection of
    minorities to conform with European norms. The recent lifting of the
    ban on the Islamic head scarf, which was forbidden in public
    institutions, should also be seen as a step forward for religious
    freedom.

    But if one looks at the freedom of the press, the picture turns dark.
    As documented by various international organizations, the Turkish
    media has become less and less free in recent years. A few
    anti-government papers still exist, but in the established mainstream
    media, whose owners feel obliged to please the government, dozens of
    writers who were too critical of the notoriously thin-skinned Mr.
    Erdogan have lost their jobs. As Bulent Kenes, the editor of Today's
    Zaman, a conservative-leaning paper that used to support the prime
    minister, wrote in a scathing column last week, there is a ''new media
    order'' in which criticizing the government is becoming more and more
    unsafe.

    The simple fact, that neither side wants to accept is that Mr.
    Erdogan's government Enhanced Coverage LinkingErdogan's government
    -Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Daysis
    advancing democracy on some levels, while curbing it on others.

    This is happening because while Mr. Erdogan is a passionate defender
    of electoral democracy (he keeps winning), he is not terribly fond of
    liberal democracy. Some key principles of political liberalism, such
    as limited government, checks and balances, and a fully independent
    press, do not seem to count for much in his political vision. In fact,
    some members of his team have openly described these as unnecessary
    constraints on the ''national will,'' which is represented by whoever
    wins at the ballot box. (They might have been further persuaded by the
    American government's recent shutdown, which didn't exactly cast the
    system of checks and balances in the most glowing light.)

    Mr. Erdogan's patriarchal personality plays a role in all this as
    well. He sees himself as a loving, caring father to his nation -- an
    attitude that resonates here. The upside of this vision has been 10
    years of enormous advances in the economy, health care, education and
    transportation. The downside is that when his opponents don't
    universally praise his achievements, he perceives them as disobedient
    children who deserve to be reprimanded. This has led to public
    outbursts about critical newspaper columnists and this summer's
    heavy-handed police crackdown on anti-government protesters.

    The irony is that despite many liberals' opposition to his rule, the
    Erdogan era has in fact advanced a number of unmistakably liberal
    causes. His Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P., came
    to power in 2002 with a bold message of change. The ''Old Turkey'' was
    too militaristic, too nationalist and too oppressive. The A.K.P. vowed
    to liberate not just its own voting base -- the religious
    conservatives who feel they have been humiliated by a zealously
    secularist elite -- but also all marginalized groups, such as the
    Kurds, Armenians and Greeks.

    This is why much of Turkey's intelligentsia -- which always dreamed of
    liberal democracy but never had the mandate to build one -- supported
    Mr. Erdogan. That is also how the ''Islamist-liberal alliance'' became
    the bête noire of the old elite, which includes former army generals
    who are now in jail for planning a coup against Mr. Erdogan.

    Some Turkish liberals still support Mr. Erdogan for dismantling the
    ''Old Turkey,'' but others have abandoned him, arguing that his ''New
    Turkey'' has created new problems that are piling up as the years pass
    and as power corrupts those who wield it.

    At a time when no major opposition party seems capable of offering a
    better vision, it is naïve to hope that liberal democracy will emerge
    from any single party or some revolutionary moment. Rather, it will
    come through gradual reform. When Mr. Erdogan takes steps like the
    ''democratization package'' he announced on Sept. 30, he should be
    supported. When he takes illiberal steps like cracking down on
    peaceful protests or demonizing opponents with extravagant conspiracy
    theories, he should be criticized. The recent Turkey Progress Report
    by the European Commission is a good example of such balanced,
    objective analysis.

    And for all the A.K.P.'s illiberal tendencies, it is worth remembering
    that the staunchly secular pre-Erdogan era, which some nostalgic Turks
    still portray as a bygone democratic idyll, was in fact much less free
    in almost all respects.

    Contrary to the alarmism of those who long for the old days and attack
    the current government at every opportunity, Turkey is not on the path
    to becoming another Iran or Saudi Arabia -- or something like Vladimir
    Putin's Russia. But it certainly is not a fully liberal democracy yet.

    To make it one, Mr. Erdogan and his allies must accept that they can't
    advance democracy merely by taking pride in correcting the misdeeds of
    their predecessors. They also have to look hard at their decade-old
    rule, recognize their mistakes and then correct them.

    Mustafa Akyol is the author of ''Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case
    for Liberty.''

    INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES



    URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/opinion/akyol-is-erdogan-a-democrat.html

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