Amidst scenes eerily reminiscent of the former Soviet Republics, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) elected the outgoing Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as its new leader. In a sports arena in the capital, Turkey’s President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke for nearly two hours, outlining his vision of the “New Turkey”.
Surrounded by huge posters of himself staring down at his adulating audience of thousands of party faithful, much of Erdogan’s speech was focused on the need to continue with the reshaping of the nation after he takes up the presidency and his determination to remain at the helm of the country.
“What is changing today is the form, not the essence. The mission of our party, the spirit of its cause, its goals and ideals are not changing,” he said.
Dismissing suggestions that his preordained successor, Mr Davutoğlu would become nothing more than a loyal placeholder, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan insisted “The AK Party is not a one-man party, it never has been and never will be”.
The sole candidate, Ahmet Davutoğlu received 1382 votes out of 1388, with six votes declared invalid.
Greeted with much fanfare and a specially composed song for himself, with the lyrics “you are the long-awaited spirit of Sultan Abdulhamid, entrusted to us by the great leader”; Mr Davutoğlu took the podium to pledge his loyalty.
“Erdogan’s legacy is our honour and will be defended to the end,” Davutoğlu said, adding “the convention was not one of farewell, but of fidelity”.
Introduced as a prominent politician on a global scale, a much admired academic and serious thinker, protector of the world’s oppressed” , Davutoğlu’s convention speech did not give any hint of a recalibration of Turkey’s much criticized foreign policy. Instead, the outgoing foreign minister hit back at his opponents. “They accused us of being utopians and they said we were only dreaming. That’s true, we dream. But those who do not dream should be ashamed” he said.
Continuing the theme of the “New Turkey”, Mr Davutoglu listed his vision of “restoration” of Turkey to its old glory under nine different headings. Referring to last year’s Gezi protests and the corruption inquiry launched against the government as “plots to destroy the self-confidence his government has instilled in people”, he wowed to restore the state’s authority, to prevent bureaucracy from exercising power over those elected by the people. He promised to continue with the peace process to bring the conflict with the country’s Kurds to an end. He renewed his pledge to work towards European Union membership and he repeated his party’s determination to change the 1982 constitution.
In a speech full of religious and historical references, Ahmet Davutoğlu expressed his desire to restore Turkey’s influence abroad, and moral values at home. He said that the protection of freedoms and preservation of human dignity were crucial to his government; but “every freedom came with a responsibility. “Freedom of the media requires a moral press; freedom of enterprise requires legitimate earning and freedom of belief requires respect for other beliefs. We will make sure all freedoms have a new moral formation” he said.
By denying accreditation to 12 media outlets, all of them considered to be oppositional; the AKP government gave its first signs of the promised “new era of restoration”.
Condemned by several media freedom campaigners, including Turkey’s Press Council, The Turkish Journalists Association and the Progressive Journalist Association ,the latest restrictions on the media coincided with a new and comprehensive report by the Washington-based watch-dog Freedom House, describing Turkey as a battleground state for Internet regulation .
Pro-government media’s glorification of the great leader and his servile successor may give an impression of a country eager to be restored and transformed but it takes more than hollow declarations by its politicians to convince the world that Turkey is on a smooth path ahead.
The country will come under ever tightening scrutiny for its past and present policies in its increasingly dangerous neighborhood.
The next prime minister of Turkey may get away with not mentioning the 49 hostages held by ISIS in Iraq for the past 77 days but he is culpable for their fate as well as much of what has unfolded inside and outside Turkey’s borders.
While espousing a restoration of moral superiority, Mr Davutoglu may soon find himself having to answer some awkward questions about his country’s somewhat amoral accommodation of the Islamist radicals including ISIS until very recently.
This post is also available in: Turkish
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