What sort of politician is Prime Minister Erdoğan?

 In what followed, the General Staff made it clear that it had no intention of assuming the task and suggested it be assigned to the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA); few asked why the TSK, which gets such a large part of the national budget, did not possess the necessary competence. The government withdrew the bill for revision when faced with opposition even coming from within the party ranks.

 The debate intensified, however, when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded to the bill's critics at a provincial party conference with the following: “Syria cleared its part of the border, and we wanted to do the same and reclaim 210 million square meters of land suitable for organic farming. Immediately, accusations began. They said, ‘You are going to make a gift of this land to Israel!' For decades the same approach has persisted. How can you say Turkey is selling out just because the global capital that is investing in our country comes from this or that religion? … Money has no religion or race. They will invest here, and Ahmet, Mehmet and Ayşe will find work, not Yitzhak.” He went on to say: “People of different ethnic identities were kicked out of our country. This was the result of a fascist approach.”

 The prime minister's statements led to an interesting turn in the debate whereby some of his hard-line critics backed him, while some of his hard-line supporters harshly criticized him. Personally, I was posed a number of questions by foreign journalist colleagues: Were the statements by Erdoğan premeditated or improvised? Did he mainly target the domestic or the international public? What was the real aim of the statements?

 These were my responses: I have no way of knowing whether Erdoğan's statements were premeditated or improvised. They may be directed at both domestic and foreign audiences. He may have wanted to address the unfair criticism accusing him of fomenting anti-Semitism through his denouncement of the Israeli aggression against Gaza in January. He may have wanted to underline once more that his criticism of Israel is in no way anti-Semitic and to assuage the fears among citizens of the Jewish faith. He may also have intended for these statements to improve Israeli public opinion. The statement describing the policies of “kicking out” citizens of different ethnic origins as a “fascist approach” may well have been intended to mainly charm the Greek public in preparation for his coming visit to Athens in June, the first official visit of a Turkish prime minister to Greece after many years.

 I am not sure if my above interpretations of Prime Minister Erdoğan's statements are valid or not. I do, however, have an opinion on what those statements signify in terms of what sort of a politician Erdoğan is. I believe that the statements show first that Erdoğan is the Turkish politician who most strongly believes in the benefits of a liberalized and globalized economy. He does not care what race, ethnicity or religion capital has as long as it is invested in the Turkish economy and contributes to Turkish economic development. Secondly, Erdoğan is a Turkish politician who is relatively more critical of discriminative practices against ethnic and religious minorities compared to other Turkish politicians. And thirdly, Erdoğan in comparison to other Turkish politicians has the most self-critical approach toward the past official policies of the Republic of Turkey.

 In short, Prime Minister Erdoğan, who is claimed by some to be an unrepentant Islamist with a hidden agenda or even an Islamofascist, is in reality not ideally liberal but relatively the most liberally inclined politician in Turkey today.