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Turkey Loses Its Direction

20.01.2015 12:40

Turkey has long been moving in an uncertain direction, raising concerns over a potential crisis that may erupt in this NATO member country, which borders one of the world's most dangerous regions -- the Middle East -- and which, at the same, is engulfed in turmoil.There is a deepening political divide.

Turkey has long been moving in an uncertain direction, raising concerns over a potential crisis that may erupt in this NATO member country, which borders one of the world's most dangerous regions -- the Middle East -- and which, at the same, is engulfed in turmoil.
There is a deepening political divide in the country, with a population sensitive to Islam on one hand and on the other a secular segment of society, who have never been given a chance to compromise on basic democratic values. Added to the concern is the renewal of fierce clashes taking place in the country's restive Kurdish-dominated eastern and southeastern regions, having the potential to turn into an all-out sectarian war.
The government's anti-democratic policies -- which has taken form by either initiating legal measures against those criticizing its draconian measures, including the media, or by allowing police to use disproportionate force against demonstrators -- has been carrying the potential to push this EU-candidate member country into serious turmoil.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has accelerated a witch hunt against opposition -- in particular since the disclosure of a high-profile corruption and bribery scandal that went public on Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, during his post as then-prime minister -- seeks to consolidate his power through authoritarianism. He and the government, acting under his directions, have so far succeeded in covering up the graft probe by bringing the judiciary under the control of the executive.
A parliamentary commission recently failed to take four former cabinet ministers who were forced to resign after the graft disclosure to a top court for trial, thanks to the strong majority of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the commission.
While those allegedly involved in graft are left unpunished, those who have criticized the government's persistent attempts to cover up the corruption scandal have faced legal procedures with fabricated evidence. Members of the media, academics and citizens as young as 16 years old have now been facing trials over charges of criticizing the government, the president or the judiciary in the media or in Twitter posts.
Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı, Samanyolu TV chief executive Hidayet Karaca, journalist Sedef Kabaş and the Cumhuriyet daily and its journalists are among many of those who are facing prison terms, for involvement in “terrorist activities” or of “insulting a prosecutor” who gave a verdict that there was not adequate evidence to try those allegedly involved in graft. The Cumhuriyet daily and its journalists also faced legal procedures for publishing excerpts of the Charlie Hebdo French satirical magazine, whose leading caricaturists were among 12 people who were recently massacred by radical terrorists.
A former AKP deputy, meanwhile, is facing a prison sentence of up to six years for allegedly insulting Erdoğan through Twitter messages. The dean of Pamukkale University's Faculty of Medicine, Professor Hasan Herken, resigned this past week over a tweet he posted via his personal account that was critical of the military attire worn by guards at the presidential palace, dubbed Ak Saray.
The list of people who are facing criminal charges, losing their jobs or being profiled simply because they criticize the government and president, has been becoming too long, carrying the danger of an explosion of anger within the public and leading to a civil unrest in return.
Since the government has failed to put into force necessary legal steps to move ahead with a process to end a nearly 30-year-long fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) through peaceful means, tension in the Southeast has reached to an uncontrollable level. Street clashes in the Cizre district, close to the Syrian border, has seen a rise following the killing of a 12-year-old boy by a bullet that Kurds say was shot by a police officer.
Long-standing accusations that have been leveled against the government -- of closing its eyes to foreign fighters using Turkish soil to go to Syria or supporting them with arms, as a recent United Nations report said -- have led to Turkey being labeled internationally as a country supporting jihadists.
Turkey has never experienced a system where democratic values could partly be adhered to, due to frequent military coups disrupting order. Secularism, on the other hand, is used as a tool to suppress the freedom of expression and freedom of conscience, as well as the rights of practicing Sunni Muslims, liberals, Alevis, minorities and Kurds.
Turkey is now at a dangerous crossroads, as it has lost its sense of direction.

LALE KEMAL (Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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