![\"Protestors\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Protestors.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPolitical Change in Turkey Special<\/p>\n
By Lonna Lisa Williams<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After years of maintaining control in Turkey, Islamist Ak Party Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan faces student protests and speaks about stepping down.<\/p>\n
2012 has been a difficult year for Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister. Justice and Development (Ak) Party Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has faced prisoner hunger strikes and many demonstrations by students and the general public. In just the last weeks of December, thousands of people held protests. Many of these protesters are university students who are tired of seeing fellow students, professors, journalists, and novelists put into prison for speaking against Erdo\u011fan and his oppressive policies that hinder freedom of speech in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Last week, Student protesters converged on Erdo\u011fan’s visit to Middle East Technical University (ODT\u00dc) in Ankara. Police used so much pepper spray against them that the noxious gas drifted toward the Prime Minister. Kocaeli University students marched through the usually sleepy college town of Izmit and demanded liberty for victims of Erdo\u011fan’s political imprisonment. They also disrupted a university meeting. Police used extreme force against student protesters in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, three students who simply held up a banner asking for free university tuition at a sports rally were given eight-year prison sentences. Erdo\u011fan often labels those who oppose him as terrorists or backers of a coup. Even army generals have been put in prison under this tactic. Hundreds of prisoners went on a hunger strike this fall, putting further pressure on Erdo\u011fan and drawing world attention.<\/p>\n
Today on Turkey’s news station TRT1, Erdo\u011fan looked worried and even a little frightened during a live interview. He stated that next year would be his last as Turkish Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
“The press is reporting only bad things about me lately,” he said. “They don’t mention all the good I’ve done such as strengthening the economy of Turkey.”<\/p>\n
Indeed, Turkey’s economy has seen growth under the Ak Party and Erdo\u011fan. Yet, they have used tactics such as giving away refrigerators to poor families and iPads to students in a ploy that opposition leaders condemn as buying votes.<\/p>\n
Erdo\u011fan’s successor will likely be another Ak Party man because the Ak Party got most voter support in the latest (2011) elections. The Ak Party has been pushing pro-Islam legislation, such as requiring public schools to teach Islam more frequently to students and allowing mosques to be built on public university grounds\u2014with tax-payers money. These principles go against the secular democratic views of Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic which began on Republic Day, October 29, 1923.<\/p>\n
Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu of the Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP), the main opposing party (and Atat\u00fcrk’s party), has been extremely critical of Erdo\u011fan this year. On Republic Day, October 29 2012, thousands of people turned out to celebrate Atat\u00fcrk’s ideals of freedom of speech, religion, the press, and assembly despite the fact that Erdo\u011fan declared all public celebrations of Freedom Day to be illegal. Police used water cannons and pepper spray against the crowd which was led by K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu who even suffered some irritation to his own eyes. Local news stations such as Haber Turk covered this event, and Erdo\u011fan told his police force to back down–but not before Associated Press and other premier news sources brought these events to international attention.<\/p>\n
Recently, clandestine listening devices (bugs) were found in Erdo\u011fan’s home office. CHP leader Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu called this wiretapping, “a grave situation.”<\/p>\n
The tide seems to be turning in Turkey. Perhaps this will effect the United States of America. Supporters of Erdo\u011fan have called him “best friends with President Obama.” Opponents have labeled Erdo\u011fan as Obama’s puppet. In any case, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is worried.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never seen Erdo\u011fan look so subdued on public television,” one young Turkish man stated (his identity is protected for security reasons). “Usually he is yelling, but now you can tell that he is scared. Just look at his eyes. I don’t know who will be the new Prime Minister of Turkey, but he will probably be from the Ak Party. Thirty years ago in Turkey, when so many students began protesting, there was a sudden change in Prime Ministers and ruling parties. Erdo\u011fan sees that his time is ending.”<\/p>\n
via Political Change in Turkey (Includes interview and first-hand account).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political Change in Turkey Special By Lonna Lisa Williams Close up view of the protesters who chanted anti-Erdo\u011fan slogans Read more: After years of maintaining control in Turkey, Islamist Ak Party Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan faces student protests and speaks about stepping down. 2012 has been a difficult year for Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":62112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62111","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=62111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}