This, too, despite the fact that the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) sworn enemies within the opposition, the military, the judiciary and the media have again escalated their fierce tone to the point of red alarm.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is, at the moment, fearlessly and furiously waging a war (of words) on several open fronts against these segments. So far, he has not refrained from any further widening of the political battlefield or raising the risks. The courage with which he acts is based on one single fact: he is certain that the more powerfully he challenges the “old” system, the more he will be surrounded by popular support.
The results of the latest MetroPOLL survey, for example, can be used to make the argument that he will go on with this strategy of challenging the country’s old-fashioned institutions. Almost 80 percent of those asked (in 31 provinces) believe that judicial reform is essential, and 62 percent expect that the current Parliament must deal with this. (In the event of a referendum, some 65 percent say, “I would say yes” to judicial reform.)
Seven out of 10 people asked expressed belief, too, that the Constitution must be replaced with a new one.
There is surely reason for foreign observers to be perplexed before the contradictory picture. The massive soul-searching going on aims at a new deal, a new contract. The focus must be on how the management of the ongoing “de facto negotiations” is being conducted and how -- most important of all -- the actors of the opposition are behaving. Any analysis that disregards the age-old patterns for keeping the status quo below the radar of any independent scrutiny -- let alone attempts for civilian change -- will be an insufficient and misleading one. Such precarious transitional periods are made less painful and risky if the actors in various positions of opposition have alternative, constructive visions and if the media offers rational, unprejudiced viewpoints. At the moment, due to the lack of those -- simply because the opposition refuses to play any game to articulate reasonable exits and a mainly biased, “statist” media is profoundly stained by partisanship, combined with the angry, frustrated rhetoric of a prime minister -- the picture is that of endless sparring.
When foreign relations are strained at such moments, the reactionary forces start moving about. This has always been the pattern in the painful history of Turkey: Whenever any movement -- colored social-democratic or post-Islamist -- starts questioning the “ancien regime,” manipulative aims become obvious. The latest rift over the Armenian genocide resolution in the US Congress has the potential for such temptation.
Even normally serious newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal fall for this trap, becoming instrumentalized in a dirty game. In its latest editorial on Turkey, it claims the country is turning into a police state and refers to an op-ed article in the same paper the same day.
This attitude brings the credibility of The Wall Street Journal to the fore. The op-ed article, titled “Turkey’s Republic of Fear,” is merely aimed at spreading panic, based on wild speculations and lies. It accuses of the government of authoritarianism -- simply because some army officers have been arrested for anti-constitutional activity. It claims that the Turkish police have been infiltrated by a religious movement, as it completely covers up the fact that the police themselves have been praised by the European Union for minimizing torture.
It alleges that the press is under attack because a media mogul is under inspection for tax evasion -- as if the press should enjoy full impunity from financial scrutiny, especially in a country like this. It falsely paints another media mogul as “liberal” while he is well known for his ultranationalist sympathies and earlier legal records on mishandling finances. It claims that many judges belong to a religious movement -- an assertion based on sheer conspiratorial thinking and not facts. The article’s sourcing is entirely anonymous, which raises suspicions to the highest level. It also refers to fabricated reports in the press that a large bulk of the judiciary has been wiretapped.
The greatest struggle for us journalists here is to distinguish truth from lies and not become tools for manipulation. Understanding the reality of Turkey is not the simplest of tasks. The publication of propaganda unfortunately drags a respected paper like The Wall Street Journal into immoral psychological warfare over the future of Turkey -- a vital ally for the US.
Caution is called for.
