Turkey Analyst,
vol. 4 no. 8
18 April 2011

WHAT THE COLUMNISTS SAY

Several Turkish commentators have expressed puzzlement over the fact that the ruling AKP is not re-nominating the vast majority of its Kurdish deputies as candidates in the upcoming general election. There is a suspicion that this indicates that the AKP has given up on pursuing its Kurdish opening. Meanwhile, the opposition CHP has been criticized for its decision to nominate several of the accused in the Ergenekon case as candidates. Another major topic has been the speech that Prime Minister Erdoğan delivered at the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in which he lashed out at the parliamentarians who questioned the quality of Turkey’s democracy. Erdoğan’s remarks met with the disapprobation of liberal columnists.

CEMAL: HAS ERDOĞAN ABANDONED THE KURDISH OPENING?
Some say that “the way Tayyip Erdoğan has purged the Kurdish deputies of the AK Party shows that he has experienced a great disappointment in the Kurdish issue and that he has started to revert to the habits of the past”, writes Hasan Cemal in Milliyet. Some say, “this is such a purge, that none of the Kurdish deputies who in one way or another had displayed sensitivity with regard to the Kurdish issue has been re-nominated.” Some say, “perhaps, this is a sign that those in the AK Party leadership who come from the (Islamist) National Outlook movement and the MHP (Nationalist Action Party) have exerted a decisive influence”. Some say, “this is a sign of a return to the past.” Some say, “Tayyip Erdoğan began to feel disappointed when he started to realize that the crucial issue at stake for the Kurds is the question of identity; his feeling of disappointment can be summarized as the realization that “it seems what the Kurds call a solution is the partition of this country”. Some say, “this disappointment seems to have led Erdoğan to turn his face to the past; in other words, to seek a rapprochement with the state and with the military”. Some say, “how much is Erdoğan able to correctly interpret where Turkey is headed, and to what extent is he aware of the dangers that the country could be facing after the elections?” Some say, “The things that Erdoğan does during an election period should be judged against the backdrop of the particular circumstances of the situation; and you need to be careful not to jump to hasty conclusions about the future. Don’t forget that Tayyip Erdoğan is the one who opened the door for a dialogue with (the imprisoned PKK leader) Öcalan.

ERGİN: NOMINATING ERGENEKON SUSPECTS VIOLATES POLITICAL ETHICS
Sedat Ergin in Hürriyet is highly critical of the main opposition party CHP which has nominated several of the incarcerated suspects in the Ergenekon case as candidates for parliament in the upcoming general election. Even though these suspects retain the right to be viewed as innocents until proven guilty, the fact still remains that they are indeed suspects, and their nominations is hardly in accordance with political ethics. We should also bear in mind that, although the Ergenekon case in its later stages has derailed and turned into a way of intimidating opposition, the explosives that were found, and the web of relations that the first waves of arrests exposed, did point toward the existence of a criminal network. CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu has taken a significant risk by giving shelter to the accused and has exposed himself to the accusations that Prime Minister Erdoğan is surely going to level against him in the election campaign. It could indeed be argued that Kılıçdaroğlu has taken the most contentious and risky decision so far of his political career.

ZAMAN:  A NEW CONSTITUTION IS NOT GOING TO BE A MAGIC CURE AS LONG AS PARLIAMENT DOES NOT REFLECT POPULAR WILL
Amberin Zaman in Habertürk writes about what has recently come to be termed ”constitutional fetishism” in Turkey, with a new constitution being seen as something of a magic cure. It is as if a new constitution would ensure that all of the country’s problems would somehow be solved. Did you say the headscarf problem? It is going to be solved with a new constitution. Or did you say the Kurdish problem? The answer is the same. Not least the representatives of the AKP have taken to dodge the calls for reforms by taking refuge behind this rhetoric. Of course we do need a constitution that has been cleansed of militarism, racism and discrimination. And it is absolutely necessary that a new constitution is based on a societal consensus. This is also repeatedly affirmed by the AKP. Yet will the new parliament that is going to be elected provide the grounds for such a broad consensus? This is the crux of the whole matter. As the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) points out, how can you claim that the parliament reflects popular will as long as the ten percent threshold remains in place? How can you speak of a societal concord without first having removed this injustice that forces the BDP, that has the support of at least 5 percent of the voters, to field independent candidates?

ALTAN: ERDOĞAN TURNS HIS BACK ON THE VALUES OF EUROPE
Ahmet Altan in Taraf expresses his disappointment over the speech that Prime Minister Erdoğan gave in the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe. There are those who compare Erdoğan’s hard hitting remarks in Strasbourg with his toughness at the Davos summit two years ago. At that occasion, Erdoğan took issue with the injustice that was being committed in Gaza, raising his voice against the barbaric killing of children; he was on legitimate ground and he was supported by a vast majority of the Europeans. What he has taken issue with in Strasbourg is democratic values. To be honest, I cannot understand how anyone can see any similarity between the two events. The only ones who are going to applaud the Prime Minister for having told the Europeans to mind their own business are the nationalists in Turkey. Yet if you treat Europe as “alien”, if you refuse its democratic values, then you end up together with the same lot in Turkey who detest Europe’s democratic values and who issued a memorandum against the elected government because they held that the first lady of Turkey could not wear the headscarf.  Is this the “front” that Erdoğan, who once started his journey toward power by marching to the tune of Europe and democracy, aspires to join?

BERKAN: WELCOME NEO-ISOLATIONISM
İsmet Berkan in Hürriyet writes that Prime Minister Erdoğan has come to resemble the secularist nationalists who are against Europe precisely because they dislike freedom and democracy. The Islamists used to be like that as well, but with time some of them had come to embrace European values. But has anyone seen any proof that the AKP is promoting freedom since 2006? No headway has been done when it comes to the freedom of the press, the freedom of expression, or in relation to the Kurdish and Alevi issues. Perhaps because there is a lack of political will to do so. No, the AKP has not yet become an anti-European party, but the speech that Erdoğan gave at the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe strongly suggests that the party is about to revert to the isolationism that is imbedded in its genes.

© Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center, 2010. This article may be reprinted provided that the following sentence be included: "This article was first published in the Turkey Analyst (www.turkeyanalyst.org), a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center".

The Turkey Analyst
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It is published bi-weekly, and includes topical analysis, as well asa summary of the Turkish media debate. It is edited and compiled under the supervision of Svante E. Cornell and Halil M. Karaveli.

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The Joint Center was created in 2005 through the merger of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and the Silk Road Studies Program, at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy.

The Turkey Initiative
The Joint Center launched a Turkey Initiative in 2006 in order to improve understanding of Turkish domestic and foreign affairs in Europe and the United States.

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