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TENSION NEEDS TO BE EASED AFTER ERDOGAN TAKES OFFICE
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Aug 15 2014
GUNAY HÄ°LAL AYGUN
August 15, 2014, Friday
While the debate on the current position of President-elect and
incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues, the question
is also whether Erdogan will pursue his discriminative rhetoric as
Turkey's new president.
His latest controversial remark was against Armenians and sparked
public outrage on social media. Earlier, he used similar rhetoric
about Greeks. Apart from minorities, Erdogan is also known for his
harsh statements addressing any dissenters, such as when he described
participants of the Gezi Park protest movement as "looters." After
Erdogan won the Aug. 10 presidential election, his victory speech
was unexpectedly reconciliatory, as he promised to embrace all 77
million citizens, including those who do not support him.
In his Friday piece, Taraf daily's Hadi Uluengin wrote that if Erdogan
as president adopts a reconciliatory discourse as he did in the first
years of his rule and embraces those who do not support him, or at
least does not suppress them, even those who oppose him might leave
aside the disputes and make peace with him. Such an attitude would not
mean ending criticizing Erdogan, but it is unquestionable that Turkey
needs urgently to ease its tension. Hence, Erdogan and his opponents
need to take friendly steps towards each other, Uluengin commented.
According to him, the discussions within the Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) about constitutional referendum, probably to be
urged by Erdogan, and a likely early parliamentary election point to
an unstable near-future for Turkey.
Haberturk daily columnist Soli Ozel wrote on Friday that it is a
setback that "the new republic of Turkey" is being founded on a
single political movement, which is Islamism. According to Ozel,
the primary reason behind this is the fact that all other political
movement in Turkey have collapsed. "These [movements] don't have
any discourse or program to meet the demands and aspirations of
the society. It was also revealed in the latest elections that
they also don't have the talent to mobilize [followers of] their
organizations towards a shared goal," Ozel said. The 52 percent of
the votes that Erdogan garnered in the Aug. 10 election, he believes,
is not sufficient for the AK Party's final target, as the policies
based on Islamism do not have any alternative model for the society
except for dominating the lives of individuals. "Turkey cannot build
a sound future if it continues to exclude a significant number of
its people," Ozel said. The columnist pointed out that the current
regional and global conditions are different from the time the AK
Party first came to power, as people used to have high expectations
from political Islam. "It was exciting for many that a party with
Islamist roots was conducting reforms for Turkey's accession in the
European Union," Ozel said, adding that in the end Turkey failed to
present a role model to Middle Eastern countries.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/gunay-hilal-aygun/tension-needs-to-be-eased-after-erdogan-takes-office_355778.html
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Aug 15 2014
GUNAY HÄ°LAL AYGUN
August 15, 2014, Friday
While the debate on the current position of President-elect and
incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues, the question
is also whether Erdogan will pursue his discriminative rhetoric as
Turkey's new president.
His latest controversial remark was against Armenians and sparked
public outrage on social media. Earlier, he used similar rhetoric
about Greeks. Apart from minorities, Erdogan is also known for his
harsh statements addressing any dissenters, such as when he described
participants of the Gezi Park protest movement as "looters." After
Erdogan won the Aug. 10 presidential election, his victory speech
was unexpectedly reconciliatory, as he promised to embrace all 77
million citizens, including those who do not support him.
In his Friday piece, Taraf daily's Hadi Uluengin wrote that if Erdogan
as president adopts a reconciliatory discourse as he did in the first
years of his rule and embraces those who do not support him, or at
least does not suppress them, even those who oppose him might leave
aside the disputes and make peace with him. Such an attitude would not
mean ending criticizing Erdogan, but it is unquestionable that Turkey
needs urgently to ease its tension. Hence, Erdogan and his opponents
need to take friendly steps towards each other, Uluengin commented.
According to him, the discussions within the Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) about constitutional referendum, probably to be
urged by Erdogan, and a likely early parliamentary election point to
an unstable near-future for Turkey.
Haberturk daily columnist Soli Ozel wrote on Friday that it is a
setback that "the new republic of Turkey" is being founded on a
single political movement, which is Islamism. According to Ozel,
the primary reason behind this is the fact that all other political
movement in Turkey have collapsed. "These [movements] don't have
any discourse or program to meet the demands and aspirations of
the society. It was also revealed in the latest elections that
they also don't have the talent to mobilize [followers of] their
organizations towards a shared goal," Ozel said. The 52 percent of
the votes that Erdogan garnered in the Aug. 10 election, he believes,
is not sufficient for the AK Party's final target, as the policies
based on Islamism do not have any alternative model for the society
except for dominating the lives of individuals. "Turkey cannot build
a sound future if it continues to exclude a significant number of
its people," Ozel said. The columnist pointed out that the current
regional and global conditions are different from the time the AK
Party first came to power, as people used to have high expectations
from political Islam. "It was exciting for many that a party with
Islamist roots was conducting reforms for Turkey's accession in the
European Union," Ozel said, adding that in the end Turkey failed to
present a role model to Middle Eastern countries.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/gunay-hilal-aygun/tension-needs-to-be-eased-after-erdogan-takes-office_355778.html