{"id":3599,"date":"2016-05-12T18:47:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T23:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=3599"},"modified":"2016-05-12T18:47:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T23:47:11","slug":"turkish-secularism-ctd-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/05\/12\/turkish-secularism-ctd-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish Secularism, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

The forces of what might be best described as conservatism in Turkey continue their path to the far right, despite the skepticism of the Turkish youth, as discussed here<\/a>. It begins with the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. \u00a0From The Economist<\/strong><\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The man who pulled the carpet from under [Davutoglu’s]\u00a0feet was the same one who appointed him less than two years ago: Turkey\u2019s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Tensions between the increasingly authoritarian Mr Erdogan and his prime minister have simmered for months. The two disagreed over the future of peace talks with Kurdish insurgents, and over Mr Erdogan\u2019s plans to change the constitution to give the presidency executive powers, cementing his grip on government and his own Justice and Development (AK) party.<\/p>\n

They also clashed over the management of the economy, and Mr Erdogan\u2019s crackdown on critics. (Its latest victims, two journalists, were sentenced to two years in jail last week for republishing a drawing from Charlie Hebdo<\/em>, a French weekly, featuring a weeping Prophet Muhammad.) Mr Erdogan has accused his prime minister of stealing the spotlight. \u201cDuring my time as prime minister it was announced that Schengen travel would come into force in October 2016,\u201d he said recently, referring to the visa talks. \u201cI cannot understand why bringing it forward by four months is presented as a triumph.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At DW<\/strong><\/em>, Reinhard Baumgarten expresses<\/a> some concern:<\/p>\n

There is great cause for alarm in Turkey,<\/a> where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gone to unprecedented lengths<\/a> to consolidate his power. He is determined to change the constitution and make himself the boundless ruler of the Turkish people by hook or by crook. Voters have declined to help him to that end in two successive parliamentary elections. Both times his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came up clearly shy of the votes needed to assemble a parliamentary majority.<\/p>\n

Yet Erdogan, who constantly points out that he is the first Turkish president to be directly elected, refuses to accept the message that voters have sent him. Erdogan appointed Ahmet Davutoglu to succeed him as prime minister because he saw him as a willing executor of his political will. That obviously didn’t work out.<\/a> Despite his abundant loyalty toward Erdogan, Davutoglu remained too independent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The alarming part is how President Erdogan’s followers wish him to be treated, as reported<\/a> by Mustafa Akyol in AL Monitor<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

It can be safely said that\u00a0Davutoglu’s departure<\/a>\u00a0marks even greater\u00a0concentration of power in the hands of Erdogan. The new power structure\u00a0includes a new Erdoganist narrative, in which obedience to the leader\u00a0is openly praised as a virtue \u2014 and required\u00a0as a duty.<\/p>\n

One example of this narrative came from Ankara Mayor\u00a0Melih Gokcek in a lead\u00a0article\u00a0published by Anadolu, one of the many pro-Erdogan newspapers that has popped up lately. \u201cObedience to the leader is a must<\/a>,\u201d the headline read, quoting Gokcek. \u201cThe concept of a leader\u00a0and absolute obedience to this leader\u00a0exists in our faith, in our state tradition,\u201d Gokcek said. \u201cThe leader can make mistakes \u2026 yet still the decision he makes \u2026\u00a0must be obeyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, this obedience is an obligation for not just the party, but also the pro-AKP\u00a0media world, which now makes up\u00a0the majority of Turkish media outlets. In Aksam, columnist Markar Esayan<\/a>\u00a0underlined the nation\u2019s unbreakable love for Erdogan,\u00a0thanks to his \u201cmanliness, faith, success, courage.\u201d This love, which he personally shares, is the \u201csteel core of the cause,\u201d Esayan wrote. It was so strong\u00a0that it could not be weakened by \u201csinister [criticism] such as authoritarianism, patriarchy, cult of the leader, dictatorship or corruption.\u201d Finally, Esayan explained how his love must be expressed by himself and all other Erdogan lovers: \u201cLet everybody be comfortable and keep his eye on the chief. Are\u00a0we not a huge orchestra looking in the eyes of its conductor? Can this work be done any other\u00a0way?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This, of course, raises the question of whether or not Erdogan’s ideas and policies have become so incompetent that unquestioning obedience is his only hope of being considered an effective leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The forces of what might be best described as conservatism in Turkey continue their path to the far right, despite the skepticism of the Turkish youth, as discussed here. It begins with the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. \u00a0From The Economist: The man who pulled the carpet from under \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3600,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3599\/revisions\/3600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}