US Remains Critical Of Turkish Government A Day After Elections

 

WASHINGTON DC - A day after the party of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a major victory in his country’s local elections, the United States renewed its criticism of the Turkish government, accusing it of cracking down on dissent.

Erdogan’s government has been facing a nationwide corruption scandal for months and the Turkish leader has accused a powerful Pennsylvania-based Islamic preacher, Fethulla Gulen -- as well as “foreign actors” -- of being behind moves to discredit his leadership.

Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, rejected allegations on Monday that the US and Gulen, two former strong allies of the Turkish leader, were engaged in coordinated attempts against the rule of Erdogan, who has been running the country for more than a decade.

“That’s ridiculous,” Harf told reporters at the State Department.

“Regardless of whether this gentleman was living in Pennsylvania or not, it would still not be okay for the Government of Turkey to ban Twitter. It would still not be okay for the Government of Turkey to crack down like they have on dissent.”

US criticism against Turkey escalated on March 21 after the Turkish government shut down the mini-blogging site, Twitter.

“The United States is deeply concerned that the Turkish government has blocked its citizens’ access to basic communication tools,” said a White House statement days ahead of Turkish local elections.

“We oppose this restriction on the Turkish people’s access to information, which undermines their ability to exercise freedoms of expression and association and runs contrary to the principles of open governance that are critical to democratic governance and the universal rights that the United States stands for around the world.”

Erdogan has increasingly been seen as an authoritarian leader who has sued journalists, writers and dissidents and successfully put many behind bars.

 

But preliminary results from Sunday’s municipal elections show no party is more popular than Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP): It is the winner in most provinces and cities including Istanbul and Ankara, the Turkish capital.

In his victory speech, Erdogan pointedly attacked Gulen, accusing him of running a “state within a state.”

“We will root them out,” he vowed. 

The victory Erdogan enjoyed is largely attributed to the more conservative and religious members of the Turkish public, rather than the secular and liberal Turks who largely voted for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), established by the founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Ataturk nearly a century ago.

Over the past decade, CHP has seen a decline in its popularity as AKP has become so powerful as to be able to amend the constitution, bringing a powerful army under civilian country and lifting bans on women wearing headscarves in public.

Erdogan has also reached out to the country’s Kurdish minority, which has been long subjected to economic, cultural and political repression, thanks to authoritarian policies introduced by Ataturk and maintained by his political descendants, including the CHP.

In the March 30 elections, most Kurds voted for their own Kurdish party known as the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), but a substantial number of religious Kurds voted for AKP as well.

The election victory has increased Erdogan’s chances of running for the presidency, a goal he has increasingly had in mind as his third and last term as prime minister has been approaching its end.

On Monday, world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, publically congratulated Erdogan on his victory. President Barack Obama, who once saw Erdogan as a friend, is yet to send out such a message.

Harf said the United States was withholding comments on the elections until final results were officially confirmed.

But even that is unlikely to restore ties between the US and Turkey, a NATO member, to its best days, says Ilhan Tanir, a Washington DC-based Turkish journalist.

“I am really curious how the Obama Administration is going to handle Erdogan,” said Tanir, who was momentarily in Istanbul for the elections.

“It’s a very tough case. But I don’t think we are going to see anytime soon, if ever, the kind of relationship between Obama and Erodgan we used to see before the Gezi park protests.”

Those demonstrators were quelled by Erdogan last summer after weeks of sometimes-violent clashes with police over a park they wanted to protect against a government plan to replace it with a shopping mall.