Turkey: Crackdown strains ties with Europe

Turkey is destroying its reputation as a stable, moderate democracy, said Orhan Kemal Cengiz in Today’s Zaman. The brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square made world news, as riot police attacked the encampment, injuring thousands of citizens and killing at least four. Police stormed the Divan Hotel, where demonstrators had huddled for shelter. They actually “closed the doors while the building was full of children and elderly people,” bombed the space with tear gas, and then arrested even the doctors who were treating the poisoned and the wounded. Now the government has made a mockery of its overreaction, by arresting a performance artist for standing still in Taksim Square in silent protest. Yet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan still insists that the protests are a “foreign plot” against him. If so, it was awfully clever of the plotters to provoke Erdogan into showing his true colors.

Erdogan is hurting Turkey’s chances to join the European Union, said Murat Yetkin in Hurriyet. In an “unusually bitter” resolution, the European Parliament urged Turkey to stop using excessive force and stop censoring television coverage of the protests. The criticism “made Erdogan explode,” calling Turkish police gentler than British police, “who dragged protesters on pavements.” The Europeans don’t see it that way, said Barcin Yinanc, also in Hurriyet. “Using Ankara’s crackdown on demonstrations as an alibi,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now proposing delaying Turkey’s accession talks. Unfortunately, punishing Turkey like that won’t help the demonstrators’ cause. “On the contrary, it will play into the hands of Erdogan” as he blames all our woes on “evil foreign forces.”

That’s why Europeans need to tread carefully, said Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian (U.K.). Of course we must condemn the police brutality and “show complete solidarity with those who are standing up for values we share.” Yet we must also recognize that Turkey is a democracy, and Erdogan was elected fairly. Anti-government forces failed to win the last election and are “unlikely to win the next one.” In fact, many Turks are proud of the way the government stood up to the violent, disruptive protesters, said Ahmet Tasgetiren in Bugun. Erdogan held his own rally in Istanbul last weekend, drawing “more than a million cheering people.” His Justice and Development Party could well improve its showing in the next election. Past public disorder has always led to military coups, and Turks have had enough of those. Erdogan has so far delivered on his pledge to rein in the military.

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Yet the prime minister’s growing authoritarianism could alienate many more Turks, said Vincent Duclert in Le Monde (France). The police have detained hundreds or perhaps thousands of people who can now be prosecuted under draconian anti-terror laws. “The strategy is to create a climate of fear.” But the protesters “have proved they will not be intimidated.” A civil society is awakening in Turkey. Taksim Square may be cleared, but the Taksim movement “is just beginning.”