Tufan Türenc:Foreign press which Erdogan must read
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 22, 2006 12:41
Prime Minister Erdogan is not correctly interpreting either the events which have occured recently, or the criticisms aimed at him and his administration.
Politicians do not seem to be able to recover from this annoying disease of "not being able to see correctly." But ok, just for the sake of argument, let's say that we have ulterior motives in our criticisms, and that we are really being unfair to his government. But then we advise him to read the short but very important passages from the Western press which refer to how he is doing. The following is from Le Monde, one of the world's most serious newspapers:
"Since the conservative-Islamic AKP came to power 3.5 years ago, it has not been the recepient of such booing as it now has in Turkey. Tens of thousands of soldiers, judges, lawyers, scientists, and regular citizens filled the streets in Ankara to stand up for secularity, and to accuse the AKP of undermining the republic."
And from the Spanish El Pais:
"The winds have started to blow against Erdogan and his AKP Party."
And from the British Guardian newspaper:
"The Turkish system which holds Islamic belief and a majority democracy together in one place should be a lighthouse for its neighbors. Following the attack on the Council of State, the tension is rising steadily between religious and secular Turks. The developments recently are a veiled threat towards democracy."
******
One of America's famous Middle East experts, Michael Rubin, said this in an article in the National Review:
"Turkey is boiling over. At the funeral proceedings for Judge Mustafa Ozbilgin of the 2nd Chamber of the Council of State, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was booed. And contrary to this, both President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the military officials present were applauded. The situation is tragic, but the crisis had been warning of its imminent arrival for a long time. The ruling AKP had been attacking secularity. I had mentioned this before. Erdogan may not have pulled the trigger himself, but he helped oil the gun."
Anyway, those are just some of the observations from the West. The Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers are obliged to extract some valuable lessons from this all. Otherwise, AKP's position at the helm of Turkey will only become more and more difficult.
"Since the conservative-Islamic AKP came to power 3.5 years ago, it has not been the recepient of such booing as it now has in Turkey. Tens of thousands of soldiers, judges, lawyers, scientists, and regular citizens filled the streets in Ankara to stand up for secularity, and to accuse the AKP of undermining the republic."
And from the Spanish El Pais:
"The winds have started to blow against Erdogan and his AKP Party."
And from the British Guardian newspaper:
"The Turkish system which holds Islamic belief and a majority democracy together in one place should be a lighthouse for its neighbors. Following the attack on the Council of State, the tension is rising steadily between religious and secular Turks. The developments recently are a veiled threat towards democracy."
******
One of America's famous Middle East experts, Michael Rubin, said this in an article in the National Review:
"Turkey is boiling over. At the funeral proceedings for Judge Mustafa Ozbilgin of the 2nd Chamber of the Council of State, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was booed. And contrary to this, both President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the military officials present were applauded. The situation is tragic, but the crisis had been warning of its imminent arrival for a long time. The ruling AKP had been attacking secularity. I had mentioned this before. Erdogan may not have pulled the trigger himself, but he helped oil the gun."
Anyway, those are just some of the observations from the West. The Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers are obliged to extract some valuable lessons from this all. Otherwise, AKP's position at the helm of Turkey will only become more and more difficult.