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| The Grand Turk | ||
| Fears for Turkey democracy as power struggle heats up | ||
| 2014-01-17 | ||
The leader of TurkeyÂ’s top business group has warned that the country risks becoming a police state as a result of the most damaging crisis since Erdogan took office 11 years ago.
TurkeyÂ’s key allies, the United States and the European Union, have voiced their concern about the independence of state institutions and the rule of law in the aspiring EU-member state. And the leader of TurkeyÂ’s top business group has warned that the country risks becoming a police state as a result of the most damaging crisis since Erdogan took office 11 years ago. The embattled Turkish leader has gone on the offensive in the feud with erstwhile ally Fethullah Gulen, but in doing so has raised concerns about what critics fear is an increasingly autocratic government in a country once hailed as a model of Muslim democracy.
“This fight will go on for years,” warned Nihat Ali Ozcan of TOBB university in Ankara. Erdogan has already launched a mass purge of police and prosecutors involved in the corruption probe, which hit the headlines in December with police raids that saw the detention of key government allies including business leaders, civil servants and sons of cabinet ministers. His Justice and Development Party (AKP) is pushing a bill that would increase government control of the judiciary, a move that has set alarm bells ringing at home and abroad. “We are facing a heavy agenda in which the judiciary has become the battlefield of a political struggle,” Turkish Industry and Business Association head Muharrem Yilmaz said. “A state that doesn’t abide by its own rules cannot be described as a state of law, not even as a state with laws. It can only be described as a police state,” he said at a conference this week. Erdogan is due to visit Brussels next week for the first time since the resumption of EU accession negotiations last year after a three-year freeze. “We are watching developments with concern,” warned one EU diplomat. Erdogan has vowed no let-up in the campaign against loyalists of exiled Islamic preacher Gulen, who could threaten the AKP’s performance at the ballot box without even putting forward a candidate. “This is an asymmetric war: Erdogan is the leader of a political party. He is quite visible and legitimate. But the Gulen movement is not transparent and the boundaries of its structure are not very clear,” said Ozcan. Although based in the United States where Gulen has lived in exile since 1999, his Hizmet (Service) network wields enormous influence in Turkey through various state apparatus, particularly the police and judiciary, and a string of media outlets, businesses, universities and think-tanks. Erdogan went on the warpath Wednesday, instructing Turkish ambassadors to tell the world about what he labelled an “empire of fear”. “That organisation and its allies in the media are trying to deal a heavy blow to the economy, hike interest rates, scare foreign investors, sabotage energy policies, and taint Turkey’s image abroad,” Erdogan thundered. The Turkish strongman has pointedly refrained from ever naming Gulen, whose organisation was once a vital part of his broad power base and helped the AKP to three successive election victories since 2002. “The target here is not the government or the party but the country and its national interests,” he said. “It cannot be explained other than treachery.” The crisis is jeopardising Turkey’s economic success story, with the national currency the lira tumbling to all-time lows and growth forecasts under threat. “There is an ongoing campaign of McCarthyism in the police department that cannot even be compared to things done during the coup years,” columnist Hasan Cemal wrote in Today’s Zaman, a newspaper funded by Gulen. “Similar to how democracy was undermined by allegations of communism during the Cold War years... democracy and the rule of law are now being undermined by allegations of Gulenism.” The AKP and Hizmet movement share similar conservative political and religious views and were once close allies, both eager to clip the wings of the powerful military, which has waged several coups in Turkey as self-declared guardians of the secular state. But cracks emerged over Erdogan’s tough stance against the wave of anti-government protests in June and their feud spilled out into the open in November when the government unveiled plans to shut a Hizmet school network. Cemal Usak, vice president of Gulen mouthpiece the Foundation of Journalists and Writers, said accusations that the movement was operating a “state within a state” were “completely absurd and false”. He said the AKP and Gulen had long been united because of their adherence to common values. “But in recent years, the AKP has chosen to pursue other avenues so we have had a ‘falling out of love’,” he told AFP in a recent interview, warning that it was likely Gulenists would not support the AKP in this year’s elections. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |