At the end of another volatile week, with the continuing political turmoil beginning to damage country\u2019s economy, you may rightly ask what is right with it.<\/p>\n
Here is my list of the five crippling maladies afflicting Turkish politics today.<\/p>\n
1-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>It lacks civility<\/b><\/p>\n
Decline of civility in Turkish politics has become very apparent in recent years.\u00a0\u00a0 Name-calling and angry exchanges in the Parliament have now degenerated into chaos and violence.<\/p>\n
On January 11, water bottles and i-pads were thrown by rival members of the Parliament as the Justice Commission met to discuss a draft bill from the government over the appointment of judges and prosecutors.<\/p>\n
On January 23, the opposition Republican People\u2019s Party deputy chairman was injured in a fight at the Parliament and had to be treated in a hospital.\u00a0 When his party called on the Prime minister to apologise for his party member\u2019s attack on his opponent, Mr Erdogan flatly refused and invited\u00a0 the opposition to apologise to him and his family first for raising corruption claims and warned there will be more such scenes if the opposition didn\u2019t back off.<\/p>\n
Nasty and brutish behaviors are common in Turkish politics. Courtesy is often seen as a sign of weakness and guilt. The prime minister is the worst culprit, addressing his opponents in an informal, disrespectful second singular form, often adding emphasis with an \u201cO\u201d\u00a0 (ey in Turkish).<\/p>\n
Some of prime minister\u2019s infamous quotes include \u201cill-fated Bedouin\u201d jibe against Mr Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition,\u00a0 \u201ctake your mother and get lost\u201d to a farmer,\u00a0 \u201cWhat else do you want,\u00a0\u00a0 you were given a job\u201d to a blind person raising problems faced by the disabled.<\/p>\n
The prime minister reserves his worst insults for the journalists.\u00a0 \u201cWe freed you from your dog-collars\u201d. \u201cThese journalists, they sleep with their dogs\u201d,\u00a0 \u201cNamert\u201d (playing on words, referring to a critical journalist Nuray Mert, whose surname Mert means \u201ccourageous\u201d and the very latest, \u201cPitiful\u201d to Sedat Ergin, the Hurriyet daily\u2019s a well-respected columnist.<\/p>\n
The list of insults uttered by politicians is depressingly long and by no means exclusively populated by the members of the ruling party. Though, the tone is set by the Prime minister, who does not follow the accepted etiquette of parliamentary politics and \u00a0does not demand high standards from his subordinates.<\/p>\n
As for bullying and rude behavior of some of his deputies and mayors on Twitter, it would be the subject of a much longer article. A quick look at the notoriously aggressive Ankara mayor, @06melihgokcek\u00a0 should suffice.<\/p>\n
2-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>It is paranoid \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Should we really be surprised that those occupy our political sphere-given they are chosen by us- are displaying signs of extreme feelings of persecution and an exaggerated sense of self-importance?<\/p>\n
In almost every recent poll on global attitudes, Turks express a very dim view of foreigners.\u00a0 The USA, Israel and the European Union regularly recieve a very unfavourable rating. Religious and ethnic minorities living inside Turkey also get harsh assesments as potential threats \u00a0to the country.<\/p>\n
So, we are, in general, inclined to paranoia. Generations raised on the maxim \u201c”One Turk is worth the entire world\u201d widely believe \u201c”A Turk’s only real friend is another Turk.”<\/p>\n
Yet, the paranoia afflicting the government in Turkey today surpasses that of society.<\/p>\n
The latest edition to the long\u00a0 list of conspirators against the government\u00a0 is the country\u2019s top business group. Mr Erdogan declared TUSIAD (Turkish Industrialists\u2019 and Businessmen\u2019s Association) a traitor for their warnings on judical interference.<\/p>\n
Several countries, including some of Turkey\u2019s closest allies, international markets, international and national media , business associations, think-tanks and rival religous groupings have all been\u00a0 subjected to Prime Minister\u2019s vindictive \u00a0comments.<\/p>\n
At this rate, soon, the only criteria for patriotism will be an unquestioning loyalty to the great leader.<\/p>\n
3-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It lacks capacity <\/b><\/p>\n
An inevitable result of years of nepotism and cronyism is a serious lack of capacity in human capital.\u00a0 The Prime minister\u2019s style is to surround him with people who would toe the line at all times.\u00a0 Advisors are chosen not for their ability to counsel but for their skill in getting others to toe the line, too. \u00a0They are there to reflect the glory onto the leader.<\/p>\n
Mr Erdogan\u2019s tendency to control everything and to demand uncritical loyalty to himself and his party have already undermined the country\u2019s established institutions, among them the foreign ministry.\u00a0 Not being able to understand and analyse the fast-changing world environment seems to be a major short-coming of this administration.<\/p>\n
4-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>It is short-sighted<\/b><\/p>\n
Today, Turkey suffers from a serious lack of long-term vision. At a time of global and regional transformation, the Turkish government has failed to read correctly the signs in every major world event. From the Arab Spring to the Syrian crisis, from energy policies to investment in science and technology, the wrong decisions were made, inappropriate alliances formed. Planning ahead is not this government\u2019s forte. Short-term political interests blind them to obvious pitfalls. Even worse, they prioritise their own immediate survival over the long term interests of the country.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5-It is not transparent<\/b><\/p>\n
The political values of openness and democratic accountability are cornerstones of any liberal democracy.\u00a0 Free and fair elections alone do not make a normal, functioning democratic system as clearly seen in today\u2019s Turkey. A government cannot be held accountable to the legal system if it does not respect the independency of judiciary or the rule of law.<\/p>\n
Collaborating with the opposition parties and civil society institutions enable greater participation by citizens.\u00a0 Mr Erdogan and his ministers polarise the society by saying \u201cif you\u2019re not on our side, you will be eliminated\u201d.<\/p>\n
Without transparency, corruption flourishes.\u00a0\u00a0 The recent corruption scandal did not surprise anyone because there was a perception that it existed in Turkey but could not be talked about.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s world, political and financial transparency is virtually impossible without a free media.<\/p>\n
And in this one field, Turkey indisputably leads. \u00a0It is the world\u2019s number one in media censorship and the number of journalists it keeps in jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the end of another volatile week, with the continuing political turmoil beginning to damage country\u2019s economy, you may rightly ask what is right with it. Here is my list of the five crippling maladies afflicting Turkish politics today. 1-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It lacks civility Decline of civility in Turkish politics has become very apparent in recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}