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US Official News
August 23, 2013 Saturday
ErdoÄ?an Aims to Distract with His Latest Remarks Against Israel
Washington
The Center for American Progress has issued the following news release:
On Tuesday Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an publicly stated
that he had evidence that Israel orchestrated the July 3 military coup
in Egypt, which overthrew the democratically elected government of
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. It soon emerged, however, that Prime
Minister ErdoÄ?an's allegations were based on nothing more than a
paranoid interpretation of a two-year-old YouTube video. But this
allegation is just the latest example of the populist and increasingly
inflammatory turn in Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's rhetoric, designed to
distract domestic political debate away from several serious
challenges to Turkey's growth and regional stability by exploiting
resentment against Israel. The prime minister's thinly veiled
anti-Semitism is unhelpful to Turks and hurts Turkey's image in the
world.
First, Turkish economic growth has slowed significantly in recent
weeks, and the country's macroeconomic outlook is increasingly bleak.
The expected slowdown in the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus measures
has reverberated through a number of emerging markets, none more so
than Turkey. Turkey had enjoyed large capital inflows from investors
seeking higher returns than they could earn from U.S. bonds, the
prices of which were depressed by the Fed's bond-buying program. But
with the end of this stimulus, the bubble has begun to deflate. This
slowdown has been particularly visible in light of a spate of large
infrastructure and real-estate investments, such as the Gezi Park
redevelopment that sparked Turkey's recent protests; a new bridge
across the Bosphorus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, which
connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara; and a new international
airport, meant to be the world's largest.
What's more, the value of the Turkish lira has dropped 4.5 percent
compared to the U.S. dollar in recent months, and the Turkish stock
market fell 9 percent in the first week of June. This, along with the
implosion of Syria'once a major trading partner and a centerpiece of
Turkey's `zero problems with neighbors' policy'has significantly
slowed Turkish economic growth, undermining the Justice and
Development Party's, or AKP's, most impressive achievement.
Second, Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an and his party have not addressed the
concerns of liberal and moderate Turks that surfaced during the Gezi
Park protests. Rather than respond as a leader of all of Turkey's
citizens, Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an has vilified legitimate political
protest and accelerated a long-running crackdown on independent
journalists and media outlets. Likewise, progress on drafting a new
constitution has stalled, meaning that Turkey continues to be governed
by a document ratified in 1982, when the country was still under
military rule, which contains numerous problematic or overly broad
clauses that allow the abuse of state authority and prevent full
reconciliation of Turkish minority ethnic groups.
The current populism of the AKP leadership represents a significant
shift away from the AKP's earlier attempts to reverse a tradition of
nationalist indoctrination by enlisting the help of private schools,
universities, and civil-society organizations. The uncompromising
pushback against protesters and journalists alike is undermining the
hope that 21st century Turkey can be a democratic society in which
citizens are encouraged to question their government and individual
freedoms are protected within the broader national identity.
Third, Turkish policy toward Syria is fraying. Despite Prime Minister
ErdoÄ?an's repeated condemnations of the abuses under Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's regime, the humanitarian situation in Syria
continues to deteriorate, and refugee flows into Turkey continue
unabated. The strain of caring for more than 400,000 refugees is
taking a toll on border communities, and a number of incidents, such
as the May 11 bomb attack in the border town of Reyhanli, illustrate
the continuing risk of the violence spilling over into Turkey.
It is important to remember that the Turkish government, and
especially the prime minister'master of clamorous announcements and
symbolic politics'dramatically raised expectations early on in the
conflict. Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an took this bold, pro-intervention
stance despite reluctant public opinion in Turkey and the more
cautious position of the United States. It was Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu who raised the option of establishing a
buffer zone on the Syrian-Turkish border in late 2011. Prime Minister
ErdoÄ?an was the second regional leader, after Jordan's King Abdullah
II bin Al-Hussein, to call for President Assad to step down. Not much
has happened since, and domestic criticism of the prime minister's
aggressive position has mounted.
Fourth, progress in the government's delicate negotiations with the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has been slow, and nationalist Turks
fear that the unrest in Syria and the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan have
created the conditions needed for the establishment of an independent
Kurdish state. This is not just a question of short-term politics, but
one that goes to the core of national Turkish self-perception. It is
important to finally settle the Kurdish conflict and reckon with the
ethnic cleansing of Armenians in 1915. After decades of delay, Turkish
society is beginning to address these issues, and the outcome will
shape the future of the country.
These developments, along with the harsh sentences handed down in the
long-running Ergenekon trial of alleged right-wing coup plotters, have
inflamed opinion in the military and among the vestiges of the old
Kemalist'the secularist ideology of the founder of modern Turkey,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk'apparatus in Ankara and Istanbul. While these
segments of society do not represent Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's
political base, he has energized his political opponents and opened
himself up to criticism that may resonate with some deeply
nationalistic Turks.
Inveighing against foreign interlopers is not unique to Turkey; it is
a common tactic of leaders looking to draw attention away from their
own domestic failures. Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's rhetoric, while deeply
offensive, is designed to distract Turks and shift the terms of the
domestic debate away from a series of touchy political and economic
issues. The prime minister is failing yet another leadership test by
resorting to tired political slogans denouncing Israel. This weakness
is further underlined by the shelving of Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's
long-held ambition to revamp the Turkish presidency in order to become
Turkey's first democratically elected president and prolong his rule.
While turning attention toward external bogeymen may be an effective
short-term political tactic, in the longer term it only serves to
further isolate Turkey and compound the international community's
sense that Turkey's democratic development has taken a wrong turn. It
also threatens to undermine American domestic support for the
U.S.-Turkey relationship. Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an would be wiser to
focus on addressing the bread-and-butter concerns of the entire
Turkish society.
For more information please visit: http://www.americanprogress.org/
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2013/08/23/72845/erdogan-aims-to-distract-with-his-latest-remarks-against-israel/
From: A. Papazian
August 23, 2013 Saturday
ErdoÄ?an Aims to Distract with His Latest Remarks Against Israel
Washington
The Center for American Progress has issued the following news release:
On Tuesday Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an publicly stated
that he had evidence that Israel orchestrated the July 3 military coup
in Egypt, which overthrew the democratically elected government of
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. It soon emerged, however, that Prime
Minister ErdoÄ?an's allegations were based on nothing more than a
paranoid interpretation of a two-year-old YouTube video. But this
allegation is just the latest example of the populist and increasingly
inflammatory turn in Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's rhetoric, designed to
distract domestic political debate away from several serious
challenges to Turkey's growth and regional stability by exploiting
resentment against Israel. The prime minister's thinly veiled
anti-Semitism is unhelpful to Turks and hurts Turkey's image in the
world.
First, Turkish economic growth has slowed significantly in recent
weeks, and the country's macroeconomic outlook is increasingly bleak.
The expected slowdown in the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus measures
has reverberated through a number of emerging markets, none more so
than Turkey. Turkey had enjoyed large capital inflows from investors
seeking higher returns than they could earn from U.S. bonds, the
prices of which were depressed by the Fed's bond-buying program. But
with the end of this stimulus, the bubble has begun to deflate. This
slowdown has been particularly visible in light of a spate of large
infrastructure and real-estate investments, such as the Gezi Park
redevelopment that sparked Turkey's recent protests; a new bridge
across the Bosphorus, also known as the Istanbul Strait, which
connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara; and a new international
airport, meant to be the world's largest.
What's more, the value of the Turkish lira has dropped 4.5 percent
compared to the U.S. dollar in recent months, and the Turkish stock
market fell 9 percent in the first week of June. This, along with the
implosion of Syria'once a major trading partner and a centerpiece of
Turkey's `zero problems with neighbors' policy'has significantly
slowed Turkish economic growth, undermining the Justice and
Development Party's, or AKP's, most impressive achievement.
Second, Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an and his party have not addressed the
concerns of liberal and moderate Turks that surfaced during the Gezi
Park protests. Rather than respond as a leader of all of Turkey's
citizens, Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an has vilified legitimate political
protest and accelerated a long-running crackdown on independent
journalists and media outlets. Likewise, progress on drafting a new
constitution has stalled, meaning that Turkey continues to be governed
by a document ratified in 1982, when the country was still under
military rule, which contains numerous problematic or overly broad
clauses that allow the abuse of state authority and prevent full
reconciliation of Turkish minority ethnic groups.
The current populism of the AKP leadership represents a significant
shift away from the AKP's earlier attempts to reverse a tradition of
nationalist indoctrination by enlisting the help of private schools,
universities, and civil-society organizations. The uncompromising
pushback against protesters and journalists alike is undermining the
hope that 21st century Turkey can be a democratic society in which
citizens are encouraged to question their government and individual
freedoms are protected within the broader national identity.
Third, Turkish policy toward Syria is fraying. Despite Prime Minister
ErdoÄ?an's repeated condemnations of the abuses under Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's regime, the humanitarian situation in Syria
continues to deteriorate, and refugee flows into Turkey continue
unabated. The strain of caring for more than 400,000 refugees is
taking a toll on border communities, and a number of incidents, such
as the May 11 bomb attack in the border town of Reyhanli, illustrate
the continuing risk of the violence spilling over into Turkey.
It is important to remember that the Turkish government, and
especially the prime minister'master of clamorous announcements and
symbolic politics'dramatically raised expectations early on in the
conflict. Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an took this bold, pro-intervention
stance despite reluctant public opinion in Turkey and the more
cautious position of the United States. It was Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu who raised the option of establishing a
buffer zone on the Syrian-Turkish border in late 2011. Prime Minister
ErdoÄ?an was the second regional leader, after Jordan's King Abdullah
II bin Al-Hussein, to call for President Assad to step down. Not much
has happened since, and domestic criticism of the prime minister's
aggressive position has mounted.
Fourth, progress in the government's delicate negotiations with the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has been slow, and nationalist Turks
fear that the unrest in Syria and the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan have
created the conditions needed for the establishment of an independent
Kurdish state. This is not just a question of short-term politics, but
one that goes to the core of national Turkish self-perception. It is
important to finally settle the Kurdish conflict and reckon with the
ethnic cleansing of Armenians in 1915. After decades of delay, Turkish
society is beginning to address these issues, and the outcome will
shape the future of the country.
These developments, along with the harsh sentences handed down in the
long-running Ergenekon trial of alleged right-wing coup plotters, have
inflamed opinion in the military and among the vestiges of the old
Kemalist'the secularist ideology of the founder of modern Turkey,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk'apparatus in Ankara and Istanbul. While these
segments of society do not represent Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's
political base, he has energized his political opponents and opened
himself up to criticism that may resonate with some deeply
nationalistic Turks.
Inveighing against foreign interlopers is not unique to Turkey; it is
a common tactic of leaders looking to draw attention away from their
own domestic failures. Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's rhetoric, while deeply
offensive, is designed to distract Turks and shift the terms of the
domestic debate away from a series of touchy political and economic
issues. The prime minister is failing yet another leadership test by
resorting to tired political slogans denouncing Israel. This weakness
is further underlined by the shelving of Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an's
long-held ambition to revamp the Turkish presidency in order to become
Turkey's first democratically elected president and prolong his rule.
While turning attention toward external bogeymen may be an effective
short-term political tactic, in the longer term it only serves to
further isolate Turkey and compound the international community's
sense that Turkey's democratic development has taken a wrong turn. It
also threatens to undermine American domestic support for the
U.S.-Turkey relationship. Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an would be wiser to
focus on addressing the bread-and-butter concerns of the entire
Turkish society.
For more information please visit: http://www.americanprogress.org/
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2013/08/23/72845/erdogan-aims-to-distract-with-his-latest-remarks-against-israel/
From: A. Papazian