Date posted: February 7, 2014

EMRE USLU

Since the country’s founding, Turkish politics has been divided along ethnic and religious political preferences. Yet Turkish society has never been divided this much.

Thanks to his great contribution, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has divided the country into pieces. He has become the divider. I don’t think there is any leader like Erdoğan who became a figure that divided the country into two big pieces: the lovers of Erdoğan and the haters of Erdoğan.

Haters of Erdoğan love this country just as much as lovers of Erdoğan. However, Erdoğan and his supporters equate love for Turkey with love for Erdoğan. If you don’t approve of what Erdoğan is doing, you are demonized as a traitor.

Turkey is no longer a country where the rule of law exists. Unfortunately, Erdoğan and his associates have made this country equal to the dictatorships of the Middle East.

Unfortunately Parliament works to please Erdoğan. Parliament has become a law-producing institution to immediately turn whatever Erdoğan says into law.

For instance, it is common knowledge that Erdoğan wants to hide the evidence of large corruption scandals. Thus, he wants to apply censorship of the Internet for citizens. Parliament immediately passes a law meeting the demands of Erdoğan.

It is a well-known fact that Erdoğan does not like criticism. The bureaucracy keeps track of all journalists and Twitter users in order to punish them. The latest example of this is Today’s Zaman journalist and Azerbaijani national Mahir Zeynalov. The Turkish authorities deported him just because he tweeted and criticized Erdoğan’s bureaucrats.

The most recent example of the division is reflected at the social level. A realtor put a sign on his shop saying, “Followers of the Gülen movement are not allowed to do business in this shop.” Pro-Erdoğan journalists, instead of condemning the shop owner, thanked him. This is a typical hate crime promoted by Erdoğan and his close associates.

Moreover, it was revealed that Erdoğan had called up a media owner asking him to remove opposition leader Devlet Bahçeli’s statements from a TV channel. Worse, the TV station removed it from the news report immediately.

It has also been revealed that the same media outlet manipulated opinion polls to please Erdoğan and his family.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu claimed he has evidence that $100 million was transferred to Prime Minister Erdoğan’s family foundation and asked Erdoğan to reveal the source of the $100 million.

I was expecting Erdoğan to immediately deny such a claim and prove that Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu is lying. Yet, instead of denying the allegation, Erdoğan accepted the fact that his family foundation received such a transfer and said there is nothing wrong with that.

In a normal democratic country, if such an amount of money was donated to a foundation run by the family members of the prime minister, he should at least reveal the source of the money, why the money was donated, how it is used and if the donor benefitted in any way from the government.

Well, perhaps because this is not a democracy but rather a “Republic of RTE,” no one bothers to explain who donated such a large amount of money and for what.

Unfortunately, Turkey, where the rule of law functions at a minimum level, is no longer a democratic country.

It seems that all institutions are designed to make our lovely prime minister happy. The Internet is censored for the sake of making Erdoğan happy, a journalist is deported for the same reason, a large amount of money is transferred for a similar reason, businesses are under heavy pressure just because he wants it, society is divided by his rhetoric, Parliament considers his statements as orders and, worst, the president does nothing; if it is not to make Mr. Erdoğan happy, it is to not make him angry.

Would it be wrong to call this country the “Divided Republic of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan”?

Source: Todays Zaman , February 7, 2014

Tags: Defamation of Hizmet | Democracy | Hizmet and politics |