There was no pretense of impartiality when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began his rallying cry in the western province of Uşak on Wednesday.
Although the emblems of the ruling Justice and Development Party were nowhere to be seen, flag waving crowds filling the town square had no illusion what the ribbon-cutting ceremony and the heated speech by the President were for.
I went to the main square of my home town an hour before the President’s convoy arrived.
Men, women and children, steadily filing out of the buses were each handed a Turkish flag on a stick before being searched and let into the fenced off area. Some were encouraged to buy football-fan style red scarves with the President’s stern image embossed on them for 10 lira each.
Noticing large numbers of attendants wearing baseball caps with the symbol of the municipality, I wanted to know if the workers were given the afternoon off and required to attend the President’s election rally. Some said yes, they had to come. Others seemed embarrassed to admit it. One told me, angrily, to go and stand inside the female-only area in front of the stage.
The crowd was instructed by the official cheerleader to chant their undying support for their brethren in Palestine, Jerusalem, Bosnia and Myanmar. I could not help wonder how many knew where or even what Myanmar was.
Every time the rain got heavier, the warm-up ritual became singing of a song known as the “Dombra”, based on a Central Asian folk tune and turned into a eulogy for Erdogan. The fact that its use during the election campaign was banned by The Supreme Election Board (YSK) did not seem to bother anyone.
Neither did they question why the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new hospital was happening three months after the actual opening and ten days before the general election.
The President praised the great people of Usak for “always standing by the cause”. Reminding the 1960 military coup that took place exactly 55 years ago on this day, and the subsequent execution of the then prime minister Adnan Menderes, Mr Erdogan targeted the main opposition The Republican People’s Party (CHP). Against all historical evidence, he claimed that the country’s second president Ismet Inönü, a former leader of CHP and the politician credited with taking Turkey into a multi-party system, was the man who had asked for Menderes to be hanged.
The crowd booed enthusiastically every time the name of Inönü was mentioned.
I remembered the stories I’ve heard as a child from my grandparents about a shameful day in 1959 during the last months of the Menderes government, when crowds in Usak were provoked into attacking the then opposition leader Ismet Inönü. An article by Dr. Mehmet Karayaman, based on the witness accounts of several people I had personally known in my childhood gives an excellent description of the events leading to the day known as “the stone throwing in Uşak”.
Having got flag waving, Dombra singing people of the town happily insulting one of his predecessors, President Erdoğan moved onto slamming more contemporary adversaries. Despite their denials and repeated statements to the contrary, Turkey’s Dogan Media group was once again accused of drawing a parallel between Egypt’s toppled president Mursi and Mr Erdogan. Meanwhile in Ankara, Official Gazette announced a ban for the Dogan group of companies from all government tenders.
While I was contemplating the accuracy of his comments comparing the Pope and the appointed head of the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate and their use of luxury cars and private aircraft; President dropped his biggest bombshell.
For a third day in a row, he continued to talk about an American newspaper as the enemy of the Turkish electorate’s free will.
“Hey, New York Times,” Mr. Erdogan shouted, going on to calling them “the paid charlatans”.
Shuffling on their rain-soaked feet, shivering in the cold, my some-what confused looking fellow townspeople once again booed…
This post is also available in: Turkish
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