Is There Anything New In The 'New Turkey'?

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which has always been led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is now the president-elect, has promoted itself with the motto of the "new Turkey." Erdoğan has been using the phrase in all of his speeches, including televised ones, and public rallies in order to describe the change brought by the 12-year-rule of the AK Party.
According to the AK Party and its followers, the "new Turkey" is an expression used to describe the collapse of the longstanding Kemalism-dominated mindset of the top state bodies and the state finally embracing conservative Muslims, including headscarved women, which it had discriminated against in the past.
Erdoğan has been taking advantage of the rhetoric of the "new Turkey" in his election campaigns, portraying it as a symbol that the country has improved in terms of democracy and free speech. In recent years, the expression has become very popular with pro-government columnists as well.
In a Tuesday piece, Bugün daily columnist Nuh Gönültaş questioned this notion of a “new Turkey.” “What is new in the ‘new Turkey'?” asked Gönültaş, adding that he considers the rhetoric of a “new Turkey” to be a tool of propaganda, a huge lie designed to exempt the government from the law. Gönültaş stated that this discourse helps the AK Party government use its power more effectively against the public.
According to the columnist, by saying that Turkey is not the old Turkey but a new one, the AK Party government means to say: “Now we have the power. We are the law, justice. We are the legislative, executive and judicial branch.” What the AK Party officials mean by the new Turkey is certainly not an improved and powerful Turkey which scares its enemies and gives confidence to its allies, Gönültaş commented.
The columnist listed a number of questions in his column, including: “Is the new Turkey a country whose passport is respected throughout the world? Can the new Turkey protect itself against attacks without help from NATO? Can a word from the new Turkey's officials stop the Israeli violence? Has democracy improved in the new Turkey? Has the violence against women been reduced in the new Turkey? Have Turkish officials stopped violating the law? Has the new Turkey made groundbreaking discoveries in science and technology?”
Nazlı Ilıcak, a columnist with the Bugün daily, examined the “new Turkey” in her Tuesday piece by looking at the foreign officials who have been invited to the presidential inauguration ceremony scheduled for Aug. 28. “We see that Turkey's credibility in the West has severely dropped,” Ilıcak said, adding that no president, prime ministers or leader from a developed country is attending the ceremony. The columnist wrote that the presidents who are set to participate in the ceremony are from Albania, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kazakhstan, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Somalia, Togo, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), Turkmenistan and Ukraine. Meanwhile, the parliament speakers of Azerbaijan, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and the prime ministers of Belarus, Georgia, Jordan, Morocco, Niger and Pakistan were also invited to the event, Ilıcak said. “Where are Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US?” Ilıcak asked, adding, “This is what the ‘new Turkey' is.”

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)