Article Scan – February 19th: Turkish PM Erdoğan’s state of mind
Turkish PM Erdoğan’s state of mind (by Serkan Demirtaş)
Share Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revealed public opinion polls yesterday, suggesting that his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is going to receive the same percentage of votes it got in the 2011 general elections at the upcoming local elections. Some senior AKP officials echo their leader and proudly say they will receive around 48 percent of the vote on March 30.
Thanks to Turkish people’s conscious and common sense, they add, an international plot in alliance with their local contractors, or the enemies of Turkey, has been realized by the whole of Turkish society. A good majority of Turkish people do not believe that the four ministers and their sons, Erdoğan and his family have been involved in corruption and graft affairs. Furthermore, the people are of the opinion that what was done Dec. 17 was the second phase of the Gezi Park protests, with its sole aim being to weaken the government and thus Turkey.
If Erdoğan and his men sincerely believe what they are saying, then what can explain their anger, anxiety and delirium to us? If they are so confident they will win elections, what are all these efforts to distort reality? If they are sure the Turkish people will not care about the corruption and graft claims, the millions of dollars and euros found in shoe boxes, or the money counters found in the bedroom of former interior minister’s son, why keep making this point? If they believe people no longer buy “media lies,” why are Erdoğan and his people not refraining from intervening even in the subtitles of news stations or the headlines of newspapers? And why does Erdoğan so desperately keep harping on a proven lie about the abuse of a headscarf-wearing woman during the Gezi protests, if he is so powerful that he no longer feels the need to exploit religious symbols and the headscarf issue?
more: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pm-erdogans-state-of-mind.aspx?pageID=449&nID=62643&NewsCatID=429
Toward the “Mubarak model” (Bülent Keneş)
A brief look at the developments of the last two months reveals that the picture we are facing is completely new. The graft investigation which was conducted on Dec. 17, 2013 has exposed hair-raising claims about the corrupt practices of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Doubts about these corrupt practices were further reinforced by the fact that the second wave of operations planned under the same investigation was halted by the panicked government on Dec. 25, 2013. Despite the sheer number of gross scandals that would force any ruling party to resign at once in a normal state governed by rule of law, the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan administration continues to rule the country. In all respects, the situation in our country can hardly be reconciled with democratic values, basic legal principles or norms or ordinary ethical values.
Even the slightest trace of jaw-dropping corruption, bribery and abuse of power scandals that implicated even Prime Minister Erdoğan himself and his close relatives should have compelled the government to resign, in addition to the fact that our financial system was poisoned by Iran’s semi-legal billions of dollars, which also impaired and degraded the ruling elites. If Turkey had truly been a democratic state governed by the rule of law headed by a government that was held accountable, the senior government officials implicated in these scandals directly or indirectly would have resigned immediately and submitted themselves to the judicial processes.
more: http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/bulent-kenes_339787_toward-the-mubarak-model.html
Turkey misunderstands its ‘Magnificent Century’ (Tülin Daloğlu)
Ever since it came to power, the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been publicly invoking the country’s Ottoman heritage, with an understanding that the epoch represents the best of times of this nation, particularly when compared with the Republican era. No wonder Hasan Koz, 47, a Turkish citizen living in Bursa, took the popular television series “Magnificent Century” so seriously. The show is about the life and times of the 10th Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, also known as Kanuni (the Lawmaker).
In its last episode last week, this television series showed the killing of Mustafa, the sultan’s eldest son, upon his father’s order due to an intense suspicion that he was preparing to rebel against his father to take over the throne.
Koz filed a complaint Feb. 15 at the Bursa courthouse — more than 460 years after Mustafa’s murder — saying that Sultan Suleiman, his wife Hurrem Sultan (Mustafa’s stepmother) and Rustem Pasha, grand vizier to the sultan, were responsible for “provoking people to hatred and revenge” and “instigating the strangling” that brought about the demise of the sultan’s eldest son.
While no court will decide to hear such a case, this is yet another great example of how people often learn about history through movies or television series, and consider such works of drama as historical documentaries. No one today can actually know exactly what took place during Mustafa’s killing, but it is a fact that he was killed on his father’s orders. Yet people’s reawakening to their common historic heritage deeply hurts them. Erdogan reacted on Feb. 16, saying, “We are not the grandsons of the Kanuni who is portrayed on the television screens. We are the grandsons of the real Kanuni.”
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/turkey-magnificent-century-sultan-suleyman-court-case.html
