{"id":107690,"date":"2014-05-18T12:48:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T09:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=107690"},"modified":"2023-04-02T16:15:40","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T13:15:40","slug":"ozymandias-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2014\/05\/18\/ozymandias-in-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Ozymandias in Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ozymandias\"
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The big question in Turkey at the moment is whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan will run for president in August. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There is every indication he will. At a meeting of the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Central Decision and Administration Board (MKYK), it was decided to maintain the party’s rule that a deputy should serve for a maximum of three terms, which rules out the prime minister’s leadership after the 2015 elections. Unless Erdo\u011fan intends to twiddle his thumbs, which is unlikely, his only option is take over from President Abdullah G\u00fcl. Provided he is elected.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of April, Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan indicated that the new president would not just be a protocol president but would exercise the executive powers provided to him by the Constitution. As he put it, he would be \u201ca sweating, running, ordering president.\u201d Article 104 of the Constitution entitles the president to preside over the Council of Ministers or to call the Council of Ministers to meet under his chairmanship, and it is undoubtedly this provision that Erdo\u011fan intends to use since the failure of the constitutional commission to transform the presidency into an executive one.<\/p>\n

President G\u00fcl has ruled out a Putin-Medvedev switch, and it is believed a deputy prime minister will function as caretaker until G\u00fcl can stand for Parliament in the 2015 elections and himself become prime minister. One of the Turkish president’s duties is to defend the Constitution and, if necessary, either to return laws to the Turkish Parliament to be reconsidered or refer them to the Constitutional Court for annulment, either in part or in whole.<\/p>\n

This is undoubtedly why G\u00fcl has chosen to soft-pedal his presidency and sign the controversial Internet, Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and National Intelligence Organization (M\u0130T) laws, so as not to ruffle the feathers of his prospective supporters in the AK Party. Despite international protests, in January without demur President G\u00fcl signed a bill criminalizing emergency medical care and penalizing doctors with imprisonment for up to three years and fines of nearly $1 million.<\/p>\n

A total of 255 protesters are now being tried for participating in the Gezi Park demonstrations last May and June, some of whom took refuge in the Dolmabah\u00e7e mosque to escape police tear gas. Two doctors who rendered emergency aid to the victims are also being charged for \u201cpraising a criminal, insulting religious values and damaging a mosque.\u201d As they explained, if they hadn’t helped, many people would have died or lost limbs.<\/p>\n

Constitutional Court<\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore, it must have been embarrassing for Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan and President G\u00fcl together with other members of the AK Party government to be lectured by the president of the Constitutional Court, Ha\u015fim K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7, on rule of law in his speech to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the court.<\/p>\n

Defining the role of the judiciary as \u201cthe conscience of the state,\u201d K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7 rejected the use of the judiciary as logistical support for political ideas and ideologies and for revenge against adversaries. Furthermore, he called for documentation and evidence of Erdogan’s claim of a \u201cparallel state\u201d and a \u201cgang\u201d inside the judiciary and accused the government of \u201ccorruption of conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7 likewise dismissed the claim that the Constitutional Court (in its partial annulment of the HSYK law and lifting of the Twitter ban) had acted for political purposes and against the interests of the nation as \u201cshallow.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a clear reference to the AK Party government’s attempts to limit or even ban the use of information technology, the chief judge quoted Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s remark that in the age of globalization, one cannot issue visas to antennas.<\/p>\n

It is the duty of Turkey’s president to appoint members of the Constitutional Court, and if Erdo\u011fan accedes to the presidency, what will happen is a foregone conclusion, as only 10 months remain of Ha\u015fim K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7’s term of office. Regulatory boards and other institutions have already been stacked with AK Party appointees, and now 110 AK Party-affiliated judges with no previous experience have been appointed to high criminal courts.<\/p>\n

Corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n

After an unruly debate in Parliament, an AK Party-dominated commission has been established to investigate charges of corruption against four ex-ministers, which will undoubtedly lead to their acquittal. In the meantime, a newly appointed \u0130stanbul public prosecutor has dismissed charges concerning illegal construction permits against 60 suspects, including the son of the former environment and urban planning minister and a construction tycoon.<\/p>\n

At the recent Financial Times Turkey Summit 2014 in \u0130stanbul, Finance Minister Mehmet \u015eim\u015fek defended the AK Party government’s purge of several thousand police officers, hundreds of public prosecutors and judges as well as senior functionaries as \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d to deal with what the prime minister has called \u201ca judicial coup.\u201d However, he assured participants that the government’s source of inspiration was still the EU in terms of cementing the rule of law and advancing towards a better democracy. \u201cThis is our fundamental point of reference.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is at odds with the contention of Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan’s economic adviser, Yi\u011fit Bulut, who said that \u201cwe no longer need Europe and its material and moral affiliates which may become a burden on us.\u201d Bulut is believed to have convinced Erdo\u011fan to delay raising interest rates to defend the lira, and last summer he claimed that dark forces were plotting to kill the prime minister with telekinesis.<\/p>\n

The EU’s enlargement commissioner, Stefan F\u00fcle, has admitted that events in the last few months have cast doubt on Turkey’s commitment to European values and standards. Germany’s president, Joachim Gauck, has openly declared that \u201cthe current developments in Turkey horrify me,\u201d and Jean-Claude Juncker, who is running for president of the European Commission, has called for an \u201cenlargement pause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u015eim\u015fek has admitted that Turkey is corrupt, although he said there has been progress in the last decade. But at a meeting of the World Forum on Governance in Prague, President of the Italian Senate and former anti-Mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso remarked that the way to get rid of corruption cannot be to get rid of those who fight against corruption.<\/p>\n

Ali Yurttag\u00fcl, who for more than 25 years was adviser to the Greens in the European Parliament, also believes that Turkey is not producing laws compatible with EU norms anymore and is suspending the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Turkey’s EU Affairs Ministry has after a meeting of the Reform Monitoring Group (comprising Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and the newly appointed ministers for EU affairs, the interior and justice) put out a statement, declaring, \u201cIt is not understandable for some EU member states and EU officials to make statements [\u2026] about the democratization package, basic rights and freedoms, including the freedoms of expression, the press and the freedom to organize, which are improving every day with the [government’s] reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Parallel universe<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The AK Party government has defended itself against serious charges of corruption with a counterclaim that the graft probe that went public on Dec. 17 was an attempted coup instigated by a \u201cparallel state\u201d controlled by a cleric, Fethullah G\u00fclen, who lives in Pennsylvania. One could also argue that the same government is living in a parallel universe controlled by the dyad of Davuto\u011flu and Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Davuto\u011flu, both as Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan’s chief foreign policy adviser and later as foreign minister, has clearly inspired Erdo\u011fan with his grandiose vision of Turkey’s role in the world. Davuto\u011flu has formulated a policy of \u201cstrategic depth\u201d based on engagement with countries with which Turkey shares a common past and geography, and envisages Turkey not only as the epicenter of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus but also as the center of Eurasia.<\/p>\n

This policy, dubbed neo-Ottomanism, also envisages Turkey playing an important role in setting the parameters of a new world order (\u201cnizam-i \u00e2lem\u201d) under Islam. Last year, in an address to the party faithful in Bursa, Professor Davuto\u011flu dismissed the last century as a parenthesis and stated that Turkey would once again unite Sarajevo with Damascus and Benghazi with Erzurum and Batumi.<\/p>\n

This theme was echoed in a speech given by Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan’s present chief adviser, Ibrahim Kal\u0131n, at the \u0130stanbul Forum in October 2012, where he spoke of a new geopolitical framework and Turkey’s pivotal role. Moreover, the traditional foreign policy goal of advancing a state’s national interests would be replaced by \u201ca value-based and principled\u201d foreign policy.<\/p>\n

The same obsession with a renaissance of Turkey’s Ottoman past is reflected in Erdo\u011fan’s rhetoric. At the AK Party’s congress in September 2012 the prime minister declared that the government was following the path of Ottoman Sultans Mehmet II and Selim I, and it is no coincidence that the new bridge over the Bosporus has been named after Selim I, who was responsible for the expansion of the Ottoman empire.<\/p>\n

After the AK Party’s victory in the 2011 elections, Erdo\u011fan declared: \u201cToday Sarajevo won as much as \u0130stanbul, Beirut won as much as \u0130zmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza won as much as Diyarbak\u0131r. Today the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Europe won as much as Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, after his return from a trip to North Africa last June, Erdo\u011fan sent greetings to \u0130stanbul’s brother cities Sarajevo, Baku, Beirut, Skopje, Damascus, Gaza, Mecca and Medina, but there was no mention of Europe.<\/p>\n

Primarily because of the Turkish government’s attempt to enforce regime change in Syria, Turkey’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been a disaster. Two years ago Davuto\u011flu proclaimed in Parliament: \u201cA new Middle East is about to be born. We will be the owner, pioneer and servant of this new Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Syria is ravaged by civil war, more than 9 million Syrians have left their homes, including over 2 million who have fled to neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Rather than exercising a strong, moderating influence, Turkey has become a party to the conflict, acting as a hub for support not only for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), but also al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.<\/p>\n

Consequently, President G\u00fcl has suggested that Turkey needs to recalibrate its foreign and security policies, taking into account the new realities that stem from the power vacuum in Syria. These include the declaration of three autonomous Kurdish administrations in northern Syria, which has now been put forward as a demand by Turkish Kurds for the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ozymandias<\/strong><\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, a speech made by Foreign Minister Davuto\u011flu in Konya last month seems misplaced. According to the minister, the AK Party was not just a political party movement but a great historical movement that could not be stopped until doomsday. This is the same minister who in a brief on Turkish foreign policy two years ago stated, \u201c\u2026 We formulate our policies through a solid and rational judgment of the long-term historical trends and an understanding of where we are situated in the greater trajectory of world history.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Konya, Davuto\u011flu swung himself up to similar rhetorical heights when he declared, \u201cThis movement, which began in Khorasan with seeds sown and a Sel\u00e7uk heritage shaped in Konya, has with the Ottomans become a world government and with it the Turkish Republic has gained a future.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Nuremberg Rally in 1934, Adolf Hitler declared: \u201cIt is our wish and will that this state and this Reich shall endure in the millenniums to come. We can be happy in the knowledge that this future belongs to us completely.\u201d As we know, this wish was short-lived, but this is perhapsa fact that Professor Davuto\u011flu has ignored in his study of the greater trajectory of world history.<\/p>\n

The English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley put this succinctly in his poem \u201cOzymandias,\u201d which tells of a traveler from an antique land who finds two vast and trunkless legs of stone standing in the desert. Nearby lies a shattered head with a \u201cfrown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command\u201d and a pedestal, on which is written: \u201cMy name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!\u201d \u00a0 As Shelley concludes: \u201cNothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.”<\/p>\n

Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish and international press.<\/em><\/p>\n

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          The big question in Turkey at the moment is whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan will run for president in August. There is every indication he will. At a meeting of the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Central Decision and Administration Board (MKYK), it was decided to maintain the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":107692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2293,89],"tags":[1211,9457,1810,1018],"class_list":["post-107690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-robert-ellis","category-turkey","tag-akp","tag-hasim-kilic","tag-presidential-election","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}