Dark Forces and Coup Plotters Hijack The Economist
The Economist has urged Turkish voters to cast their ballots for the opposition CHP in an editorial with which I broadly agree, some issues of emphasis aside:
The real worry about the AK party’s untrammeled rule concerns democracy, not religion. Ever since Mr Erdogan won his battles with the army and the judiciary, he has faced few checks or balances. That has freed him to indulge his natural intolerance of criticism and fed his autocratic instincts. Corruption seems to be on the rise. Press freedom is under attack: more journalists are in jail in Turkey than in China. And a worrying number of Mr Erdogan’s critics and enemies, including a hatful of former army officers, are under investigation, in some cases on overblown conspiracy charges.
On top of this, on the campaign trail Mr Erdogan has begun to take a more stridently nationalist tone: he and his party are no longer making serious overtures to the Kurds, Turkey’s biggest and most disgruntled minority. Mr Erdogan has hinted that if he wins a two-thirds majority next week, he will change the constitution to create a powerful French-style presidency, presumably to be occupied by himself. In a country that is already excessively centralised, that would be a mistake. ...
The AK Party is all but certain to form the next government. But we would recommend that Turks vote for the CHP. A stronger showing by Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu's party would both reduce the risks of unilateral changes that would make the constitution worse and give the opposition a fair chance of winning a future election. That would be by far the best guarantee of Turkey's democracy.
This has actually made huge news in Turkey--yesterday I was stopped in the street by a neighbor who wanted me to explain what The Economist was: "They're famous, right? Are they French?"
The funny thing (funny in a dark way, not a split-your-gut laughing way) is the reaction from the AKP:
Suat Kılıç, the deputy chairman of the AK Party, found the words of The Economist “arrogant and impolite.” ...
In addition, State Minister Egemen Bağış showed his reaction through a Twitter message in which he said the article was full of “rubbish” and that the weekly's editorial was ordered by some forces inside Turkey.
Thus perfectly, almost exquisitely, making the Economist's point.
Anyway, I bow out now from my live coverage of the Turkish elections; I'm en route to my Crystal of Serenity. But Turkey, I love you, and I wish you the best of luck. Stay safe. And no matter what anyone tells you, no, the foreign media aren't controlling your elections, and you're not controlling the foreign media. We're free to say what we want, and you're free to vote as you please. As it should be.
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Apr '11
Re: Dark Forces and Coup Plotters Hijack The Economist
This is a question for which there may not be a short and easily expressible answer but Why do you love Turkey?
I have a fascination with the History of the Byzantine State that was brought on when I used to fly a regular trip from England to Incirlik and got to wondering about the history of the region. And I am sorry I never got to Istanbul/Constantinople to see the wreckage of the great Eastern Empire. But from the Ottomans onward Turkey strikes me as a incorrigible mess. So what do you see that I don't?
Re: Dark Forces and Coup Plotters Hijack The Economist
I share Claire's love for Turkey. I lived there for two years in the 1980s (I resided in the very neighborhood where Claire now resides), and my heart jumps every time that I return to Istanbul. I do not think that it was an incorrigible mess. The regime set up by Ataturk in the 1920s and modified by Inonu in 1950 had its defects, but it worked well enough -- and it had within it the potential to get better -- which, gradually, it was doing. I fear that it is now, under Erdogan, drifting back towards the Middle Eastern norm. If he succeeds in getting the constitution changed, I predict that he will be the next President and and that he will, in effect, be President for life. The fix will be in (if it is not in already).
The distinctive feature of republicanism, both ancient and modern, is its capacity to generate a correction of course when things go wrong. Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, and the other Arab countries have long lacked that capacity. Turkey, for all of its defects, had it, and it fairly frequently exercised its option to throw the rascals out. That ability it may now lose.
Apr '11
Re: Dark Forces and Coup Plotters Hijack The Economist
Thanks. I guess I feel in a similar way about Nairobi. I lived in there for a while and worked in various places around the continent like Angola, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. I was there for the elections in 2005 that rid Kenya of the corrupt plague of Daniel Moi and the excitement at the possibilities brought by the change was palpable. And then the dream died as the Kibaki government proved as corrupt as the regime it replaced. But though Africa has been breaking hearts to hundreds of years I still love the place. I just can't explain why.
Re: Dark Forces and Coup Plotters Hijack The Economist
One day I'll try to explain why I love the place--it is obviously a failure in my writing that I've never fully conveyed that in a way that makes it obvious. It was hard to leave yesterday. But the second the plane took off, I felt relaxed in a way I never do there. It's complicated.
Re: Dark Forces and Coup Plotters Hijack The Economist
You, in Turkey for two years, Paul? Doing what, pray?
Honestly, Paul. There is no bottom to you.