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In Dealings With The West, Erdoğan Holds All The Cards

19.12.2014 18:29

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's tightening grip on power is likely to meet little more than symbolic resistance from the West next year, as Turkey's G-20 presidency and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) trump concerns about a slide towards authoritarianism.Critics at home and abroad see Erdoğan as an increasingly unpredictable leader, bent on a more powerful presidency and revenge on his political enemies. They fear he is taking Turkey ever further from Western standards of rule of law and free speech.Supporters say he is returning Turkey to its former glory, restoring its Ottoman and Islamic heritage after nine decades of rule by a secular elite.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's tightening grip on power is likely to meet little more than symbolic resistance from the West next year, as Turkey's G-20 presidency and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) trump concerns about a slide towards authoritarianism.

Critics at home and abroad see Erdoğan as an increasingly unpredictable leader, bent on a more powerful presidency and revenge on his political enemies. They fear he is taking Turkey ever further from Western standards of rule of law and free speech.

Supporters say he is returning Turkey to its former glory, restoring its Ottoman and Islamic heritage after nine decades of rule by a secular elite. They welcome this new assertive approach.

Turkey assumed the rotating leadership of the group of 20 biggest developing and advanced economies on Dec. 1 and aims to use the role to bolster the voice of low-income nations and promote itself as a trade and diplomatic power.

Erdoğan's list of visitors in recent weeks, including Vladimir Putin and the pope, the US vice president and the EU's foreign policy chief, underscores Turkey's importance on issues including energy security and containing the wars in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

Yet behind the handshakes and pledges of cooperation, Turkey's record on freedoms appears to be deteriorating. The past week has seen police raids on media outlets close to Erdoğan's political enemies and the trial of football fans accused of coup plotting during anti-government protests last year.

"Turkey's strategic geography dictates that its allies continue giving it some leeway. … People simply can't afford to ignore Turkey, whatever the policies of President Erdoğan," said Fadi Hakura, Turkey analyst at London think tank Chatham House.

The media raids drew a rebuke from Brussels. Erdoğan responded by telling the EU, of which Turkey aspires to be a member, to mind its own business. The raids, he said, were a necessary response to "dirty operations" by his enemies and had nothing to do with press freedom.

An EU source involved in relations with Turkey said he expected authoritarian steps to escalate in the run-up to a general election next June. But he acknowledged the EU's need for cooperation on issues from Syria to Cyprus tied its hands.

Ottoman sensibilities

Erdoğan's critics say he has waged a systematic war on all forms of dissent since establishing the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and becoming prime minister just over a decade ago.

Putting a secularist military that had toppled four governments since 1960 firmly under civilian control won praise, but institutions from the courts and police to the media and schools have also been brought under Erdoğan's ideological umbrella.

The message of Erdoğan's AK Party has become "focused on a romanticized notion of Ottoman Sunni brotherhood," according to Jenny White, a Boston University anthropology professor.

"Erdoğan [presents himself as] the patriarchal father protecting the honor of his national family and keeping the dangerous chaos of liberalism at bay," she wrote in the periodical Current History this month.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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