TURKEY
In Turkey, Erdogan Looks Out, Not In.
- Published on Friday, 17 June 2011 06:00
- Category: Letters from Turkey
The Turkish proverb, “the Turk has no friend” (Turk’un dostu yoktur) has become popular in Turkey's capital, Ankara. Washington thumbs its nose at Ankara’s surging strength in the Middle East. Europe continues to slam the door on Turkey’s aspirations to join its EU. Israel accuses its erstwhile ally of siding with terrorists. Perhaps this is what makes Turkey’s bombastic and confrontational prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan even more adamantly focused on his country’s foreign policy.
Alhough Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a third of the seats in last Sunday’s election, the AKP now has fewer seats (326) than before the election (330). At the same time, Erdogan’s popularity increased, from 47% to 50%.
That could be because of Turkey’s increasing role in global affairs. Certainly foreign policy was on Erdogan’s mind as he stood on the balcony of AKP’s headquarters in Turkey’s capital Ankara. “Today,” he shouted to his jubilant supporters, “Sarajevo won as much as Istanbul. Beirut won as much as Izmir. Damascus won as much as Ankara. Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, the West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir.”
Sizing up Erdogan: A View from the Ground in Turkey
- Published on Tuesday, 14 June 2011 20:00
- Category: Letters from Turkey
His Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a whopping 50 percent of the country’s vote and an overwhelming 326 parliamentary seats. Still, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, AKP’s leader and Tukey’s bombastic prime minister, forsake his usual swagger for an apologetic tone during his victory speech on Sunday night.
“Today is not a day of reckoning,” he said to a cheering crowd of several thousand at AKP headquarters in Turkey’s capital Ankara, “Today is a day of reconciliation.” Perhaps they were words prompted by the admitted loss of four seats. Nonetheless, they were, along with his appeals for consensus building with those that oppose him, uncharacteristic words for Erdogan, who has prided himself for being and representing the “outsider.”
Yet with a third and what is his largest victory yet, Erdogan and the AKP have become a Turkish institution. It is an institution with lots of money and influence. That was apparent by the number of billboards and signs boasting Erdogan’s image that lined the several mile highway between Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and the city’s main square, Taksim.