Vicious police tactics have reclaimed Taksim Square and
other places of protest, but at a high cost to Turkey’s reputation. THE
protests that have convulsed Turkey since May 31st are gradually dying down.
Calm has returned across most of the country. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime
minister, seems firmly in control. To judge by the huge turnout at weekend
rallies in Ankara and Istanbul of his Justice and Development (AK) party, his
base is more loyal and adoring than ever.
But at what price? Mr Erdogan had been hailed as a visionary
who transformed Turkey into a regional power and proved that political Islam
and democracy were a perfectly workable mix. His international reputation is
now badly dented. At home critics now fear him as well as disliking him. This
seems to be what he wants.
In the past week police launched their most vicious attack
on protesters encamped at Gezi Park, off Istanbul’s Taksim Square. With only
hours left before Mr Erdogan’s rally in Istanbul hordes of riot police ripped
out their tents, tore down their banners and doused them with tear gas.
Hundreds fled to a nearby luxury hotel, only to be gassed there as well.
According to the Turkish Medical Doctors Association, at least 7,000 protesters
and more than a dozen journalists have been injured since the violence began.
Five people have died; several are in a critical condition.
Meanwhile, a witch hunt for so-called provocateurs has
begun. Hundreds of demonstrators have been detained. Human-rights groups say
many have been jailed for such “crimes” as carrying food to the Gezi commune.
Doctors who tended the wounded, lawyers who defended them and others whom Mr
Erdogan denounces as part of a global conspiracy against his government have
been nabbed. AK vigilantes also attacked an opposition-party office in
Istanbul.
The interior minister, Muammer Guler, plans to clamp down on
social media. The battle has moved online, with Mr Erdogan’s perceived enemies
being inundated with menacing tweets. (Your correspondent has been called a
“dirty Armenian” and “a slut”.) The screws will be further tightened under a
bill to give the national spy agency sweeping powers to monitor citizens. Not
that anyone would know: reporting on the bill has been banned.
Turkey’s wobbly relations with the European Union are
getting worse. The justice minister, Saadullah Ergin, cancelled a trip to
Brussels after the European Parliament made a rude statement about the
violence. “I don’t recognise you,” roared a defiant Mr Erdogan of the EU. There
had been plans to open a new “chapter” in membership talks with Turkey soon,
breaking a three-year freeze. But Germany’s Angela Merkel, who said she was
shocked by the treatment of protesters, is believed to oppose rewarding Mr
Erdogan for his recent behaviour. Stefan Fule, the enlargement commissioner,
disagrees: “Turkey needs more European engagement, not less.”
Despite the government’s brutality, many believe the
protests show that Turkish democracy is taking root. Most protesters shunned
violence, resorting instead to humour and imagination. Take the “standing man”,
later identified as Erdem Gunduz, a choreographer, who stood silent and
motionless for eight hours in Taksim Square, inspiring hundreds of men and
women across Turkey—and in many other countries as well—to take root in the
same way. Even Bulent Arinc, the deputy prime minister, called this novel form
of protest “meaningful”, adding that “it ought to be encouraged.”
Previous crises have shown that Turks have a great capacity
to forgive and forget. But what of Mr Erdogan’s Kurdish initiative? This is
looking shakier by the day. Murat Karayilan, a commander of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which declared a ceasefire in April, has
accused the government of “preparing for war.” He says drones have resumed
reconnaissance flights over PKK camps in northern Iraq, adding that “I can tell
the PKK to get ready for action.” Turkey’s moderate president, Abdullah Gul,
has sought to lift the gloom by insisting that “reforms will be resumed.” Mr
Karayilan says they must be carried out before parliament goes into recess at
the end of July.
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