Nothing but the world: April 2014

Erdogan’s Economy and the new Biedermeier-Generation

Despite riots and protests which started in May 2013, triggered by the Gezi-Park protests, and the resulting escalation in violence with many fatale victims; Erdogan’s Justice and Development Part (AKP) has won a little bit less than 50% of the total votes on this Sunday’s local elections in Turkey. A frustrating result not only for the supporters of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) which is to be categorized as a democratic socialist party and could only unify about 26% of the total votes on them, but also for western nations who had the hope for a political change in Turkey.

Waiting for the first results in a local bar

The result was not expected to be this decisive and tensions before the election where extremely high. Even though it stayed calm, one could feel that there was a high uncertainty concerning the reactions of the people when the results were going to be published. Especially obvious was this on Taksim (One of the biggest city centers in Istanbul, close to Gezi-Park) where anti-riot police, equipped with water-cannons and stun-guns, were positioned during the whole day of the election until late at night. Also Erdogan imposed a liquor ban for the whole day, preventing people from gathering in bars; discussing the results and their consequences in public.

Riot Police in the side streets of Taksim

A kid got lost between the fences

As a non-Turkish person I was fairly surprised that the AKP party finished so strongly after all the scandals, rumors of corruption and even war threats towards neighboring countries by members of the same party. Thanks to a friend of mine who I met in Ukraine two weeks ago and who is in fact Turkish, it became more comprehensible to me why still so many people support the government of Erdogan and his total control over basically everything in their lives.

Before the AKP came to power, the country was not developing well economically and the society was deeply divided by the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. All these factors leading to a high dissatisfaction with the former ruling power at this time, the CHP. (Today’s strongest opposition party and only real alternative to AKP besides the Nationalist Party and Kudish Party)

When Erdogan came into office in 2003, things changed and economical success followed quickly. Under the rule of the conservative-Islamic party, prosperity came to the big cities like Ankara, Izmir and especially Istanbul. At this point I would like to quickly explain the change of Turkey by reference to Istanbul. The city of neighborhoods changed drastically during Erdogan’s legislature periods and quickly became a melting pot between western and oriental cultures with many business districts and rapidly increasing per capita incomes. As a consequence the city was rebuilt quarter by quarter and steadily pushed people out to the suburbs who could not afford to live at their old homes anymore. Skyscrapers, boutiques, trendy western coffee shops and new apartment complexes became the new face of the city. All for the sake of further and steady economical growth. Erdogan’s ambition seemed to have no limitation but when he wanted to flatten the Gezi-Park, close to the city center, to build yet another shopping mall people came to realize that there have to be limits and space for personal development in Istanbul, and whole of Turkey.
This unleashed a public discussion which went much further than new construction grounds for shopping malls and skyscrapers but went to the very core of the political system and its almighty prime minister. Neither the courts, the police nor the media could escape Erdogan’s influence. Control became the tool which he used for the development of Turkey.

Crossing the Bosporus

Personal space and economical success, in this picture they fit next to each other

It is normal that with growing wealth, members of the society become more aware of other problems than just the daily struggle for food or shelter and when the AKP denied sharing its power with the people the uprising really started.

Keeping this in mind it would sound reasonable to suggest that change will come and this time in form of the local elections; but it did not. Taking a closer look at the count and allocation of votes, one could tell how the big cities changed due to the given arguments. Still most of the 74 million people living in Turkey who live in the countryside, who have not benefited so much of the economy yet and only have limited access to information (Most of them have to rely on state media which is very biased) voted for AKP. For them the dream of a better life has not come true yet at this point and also the lack of education makes them more easily to polarize.

This separation of the society leads to high frustration amongst the minorities who want liberalization and gives them little hope that anything will change, also with the upcoming presidential elections in August. This is the reason why I chose the term of a “Biedermeier”-Generation. The term was used after the Napoleon era when German people hoped for a democratic change with more freedoms but were suppressed by the ruling class for many decades. Unable to change the system they were living in; they retreated from the political aspects of life and took the things the way they were. A time of recession and resignation.
I deeply hope that Turkey will overcome this obstacle and moves forward to an open and tolerant society with a pluralistic foundation where objective media delivers the arguments for political decisions.

If you have any criticism, questions or comments you would like to share; feel free to do so.

*I want to add here that the count of the votes was already questioned when the Turkish TV stations started to publish the first results. It seems like the count was much closer than presented and in Ankara there is already a pending lawsuit on the outcome, since it was decided by a couple thousand votes in favor of AKP and the opposition believes the numbers were fixed.
In general the distrust towards the election was quiet high.

Some more Impressions from Istanbul: