The future of European Turkey
Today @ 09:09
By Gerald Knaus and Kerem Oktem
BRUSSELS – On Saturday night (15 June), central Istanbul descended
into apocalyptic scenes of unfettered violence. The police targeted
tear gas, water cannons and plastic bullets at protestors, and stormed
a hotel near the park, which had set up a makeshift clinic to treat
children and adults caught up in the events.
‘No friend of Turkey wants to see the country descending into
violence’ (Photo: svenwerk)
Among those trapped in the hotel was the co-chair of Germany’s Green
Party, Claudia Roth, who is an avid follower of Turkey’s politics, a
witness to the decade of violence in the 1990s in the country’s
Kurdish provinces, and politician who supported the Turkish
government’s democratic reform process.
Shaken and affected by the teargas fired into the hotel lobby, she
described her escape from Gezi Park, which she had visited in a show
of solidarity. “We tried to flee and the police pursued us. It was
like war.” She added the next day that it is the peaceful protestors
in Gezi Park and elsewhere, braving police violence to stand up for
the democratic right to speak out, who are providing the strongest
argument for advocates of the future European integration of Turkey.
Only a few hours before Roth’s initial statement on Saturday, the
protestors in the Gezi Park and Taksim Square were discussing the
results of a meeting of their representatives with the prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan seemed to have made some concessions and
accepted part of the requests of the protestors to reconsider the
construction scheme on Taksim and wait for a pending court decision.
The Taksim Platform, the closest there is to a representative body of
the protestors, had decided to take down the different tents of trade
unions and political organisations and only leave one symbolic tent.
Most protestors were getting ready for a final weekend in the park,
before returning to their lives as usual. True, the prime minister had
delivered a warning for the park to be cleared, but such warnings had
been made before and passed without decisive action. The mood among
the people in the park was to wind down the protests and consider new
ways of political mobilisation. So hopeful was the spirit on Saturday
that families took their children to the park to plant trees and
flowers and get a sense of what has arguably been Turkey’s largest and
most peaceful civil society movement ever. No one was expecting a
major crackdown. They have been proven terribly wrong.
Turkey’s EU minister
Should they have listened to Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s EU minister and
chief negotiator? On Saturday, well before the evening raid, he not
only scolded international news channels like CNN and BBC for having
made a `big mistake’ by reporting the protests live and accused them
for having been financed by a lobby intent on `doing everything to
disturb the calm in our country.’ He also declared that `from now on
the state will unfortunately have to consider everyone who remains
there [i.e. the Gezi Park] a supporter or member of a terror
organisation.’
In the last three weeks of the Turkey protests, we have already
witnessed the prime minister turning to progressively belligerent
rhetoric for reasons of his power-political calculus. Now it appears
that the minister responsible Turkey’s European future has not only
been aware of the massive police brutality that was to be unleashed on
the peaceful protestors, but also that he fully endorsed it.
No European politician, no representative of any European institution
will be able to meet Mr Bagis from now on, without taking into
consideration his justification of the breakdown and his rhetoric
confusing citizens pursuing their rights to free assembly with
terrorists.
Within only a few hours, the government of Prime Minister Erdogan
destroyed all hopes for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, which
is now spreading all over the country. Yet no friend of Turkey would
want to see the country descending into violence. So what remains as a
possible way out of ever deepening polarisation?
In recent weeks some members of the Justice and Development Party have
publicly expressed their dismay at the unfolding events and the
polarising rhetoric of Erdogan. President Abdullah Gul has voiced
concern too. But he has stopped short of condemning the police
violence and criticizing the prime minister openly. Gul is a respected
politician and enjoys considerable public sympathy. Many have praised
the president’s conciliatory style of politics. The time has come for
him to show statesmanship and to speak out clearly and forcefully
against the abuse of power.
In particular the president should oppose the witch hunt against
protestors and against the doctors and lawyers who have supported
them. Such action may yet avert the country’s deterioration into
further violence and polarisation. The president would also do a great
service for those – Turkey’s citizens and many European friends alike
– who continue to believe in a common European future.
Gerald Knaus is a chair of European Stability Initiative, Berlin.
Kerem Oktem is a scholar at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
http://euobserver.com/opinion/120523