Erdogan under strain?

Turkish PM is neglecting EU-oriented reform drive in attempt to defend his image

Thousands of Turkish Kurds gathered yesterday to celebrate Newroz — a festival marking the arrival of spring — in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Turkish PM Erdogan has been criticized for neglecting reforms aimed at securing greater rights for minority groups.

By Burak Bekdil - Kathimerini English Edition

These days Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is showing every sign of power fatigue. When, for example, the Turkish press widely covered “disproportionate” police violence against mostly women demonstrators in Istanbul on March 6 and his government came under strong criticism from the European Union, Erdogan accused the media of “tipping off” the EU. Or when half a dozen lawmakers quit his party, the men became “a bunch of rotten apples in the sack.”

Erdogan is constantly brawling with the media. When a court turned down his appeal for compensation from a political cartoonist for drawing the premier as a cat entangled in a web of wool, he ordered criminal proceedings against the cartoonist. Erdogan believes “someone” pushed the button in an attempt to end his days in power. He feels threatened, and is behaving like a cat cornered and under threat: ready to scratch.

And this was the same man who successfully tackled a raft of political reforms aimed at greater civil liberties and freedom of speech. Ironically, shrugging off his own EU aspirations, Erdogan is now trying to run Turkey with an iron fist.

His most recent offensive in his battle with the press is a slew of amendments to the penal code which include provisions that will curtail press freedoms and could land more journalists in jail. The amendments will take effect on April 1, just half a year before Erdogan’s pro-EU government hopes to start accession talks with the bloc.

Last week, around 150 journalists marched to Istanbul’s main courthouse “to make themselves acquainted with the courts.” One sign read: “You opened 267 cases (against journalists) with the old penal code. What will you do with the new one?” (The changes to the penal code come at a time when some 60 writers, publishers and journalists presently face prosecution or are in jail, including 19 reporters in prison.)

The changes include new regulations for the press, including prison sentences ranging from six months to five years for journalists or publishers who “insult” the state, discourage military service or publish classified information. Covering issues such as euthanasia or cases of rape or suicide can also land journalists in jail under the new laws. Legal experts say the changes could bring about jail terms for journalists on more than 20 different charges.

Worse, the new code contains vague language that could make it easier to crack down on journalists, and provisions that make it more difficult for them to cover some stories, including legal proceedings. It also calls for prison sentences instead of fines for offenses such as publishing material deemed obscene. Even calling a bald man bald is an offense under the new law.

But it’s not only journalists who must “behave” to stay out of trouble. For example, one particular article foresees prison terms of up to one year for imams, priests or rabbis found to have criticized the government, its governance or laws during a religious service. The penalty is up to two years in jail if religious leaders are found to have encouraged their communities to disobey the government.

But what is Erdogan trying to do? Has he suddenly lost his senses just when he got so close to setting off his dream project?

Apparently the warnings his good friend US President George W. Bush sent him through various back channels and the media in recent months have distorted Erdogan’s psychology. He genuinely believes that someone may have pushed the button to get rid of him. So he feels threatened, and his departure from his reformist self is mere self-defense.

Erdogan should at once overcome the paranoia that everyone is in a plot to topple him from power. Someone must remind him that his party still controls 65 percent of the seats in Parliament, and that his party still leads, with quite a large margin over its rivals, most public opinion polls.

It is true that domestic politics in Turkey is slippery; things may change in a matter of weeks. All the same, Erdogan will be doing himself further harm if he antagonizes everyone he comes across. After all, Turkey’s political wasteland is full of former leaders who felt threatened by free speech and tried to intimidate the press in order to make their governments immune to negative publicity.