Mediaboss Marketing

Turkey will not bow down to the IMF program, or any imposition that would indebt our country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan said in his address to the nation after the cabinet meeting on Monday.

Donations to the National Solidarity Campaign, which Erdoan personally announced and donations from public employees were collected under an opt-out system, have surpassed 1.612 billion liras (~$240 million), the president announced, adding that private banks did not do well in this test.

The "We are enough for each other" campaign, to which Erdoan donated seven months of his presidential salary, "is a voluntary campaign, he said.

Erdoan also announced a new weekend curfew between midnight April 17 and midnight April 19, and said weekend curfews could continue if deemed necessary. Our goal was to protect millions of our people from the danger of the virus, Erdoan said. The negative events of Friday night, even though it was clearly stated that the curfew would only cover Saturday and Sunday, do not annul this fact.

Turkey has close to 50 ICU beds per 100,000 population, while the European average lags behind at 12, and Germany, with the highest number, has fewer than 30, Erdoan said.

Efforts continue for two 1,000-bed hospitals in Yeilky and Sancaktepe airport grounds, and construction will begin for new hospitals in Istanbul with a total of 350-bed capacity, he added.

The city hospital in Baakehir, a conservative suburban district in Istanbul, will be partially opened on April 20, and will be fully operational by May 15, Erdoan said, with 456 ICU beds to be made available.

Turkey has sent medical equipment and support to 34 countries, he added, and will continue to share what we have with all our friends.

More than 32 million people have received codes for free masks they can redeem at pharmacies, seven million more will receive codes until Thursday, Erdoan said.Daily testing has reached 34,406, placing Turkey high in global rankings. More than 410,000 tests have been conducted to date.

International organisations and the WHO have pointed to Turkey as an example in the fight against the coronavirus, Erdoan said, adding that Turkeytriesto respond to the needs of "all countries that ask for our support, not just our own citizens."

If you can feel pain, you are alive. If you can feel others pain, you are human.We share what we have with all our friends, as per this motto. We have delivered medical equipment to 34 countries to date. We also thank our friends who supported our country for medicine, raw materials for medicine, and medical equipment," he continued.

Turkey updates pandemic measures constantly, in light of assessments by the scientific committee and public institutions, Erdoan said.

"We will take necessary precautions to avoid a repeat of the unnecessary chaos experienced in the first hours the curfew was announced. Our goal was to protect from the danger of the virus millions of our people who would, falling for the lure of the good weather, fill up streets, parks, picnic grounds and beaches overthe weekend. The negative events of Friday night, even though it was clearly stated that the curfew would only cover Saturday and Sunday, do not annul this fact."

Erdogan also addressed his rejection of the resignation of the Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Sunday;

"We appreciated the sensibility of our interior minister in taking responsibility for the matter. But we have not accepted his resignation, and asked him to continue with his duties. Our minister, whose success in the fight against terrorism, efforts after natural disasters, and most recently keeping the public order during the coronavirus pandemic I have witnessed closely, continues with his duties."

Erdoan also thanked Devlet Baheli, the president of the National Movement Party(MHP) which is part of the governing Cumhur alliance, for his support during this critical time that the country is going through.

Erdoan said the cabinet, in Monday's meeting, had decided to continue with weekend curfews when necessary, as part of the fight against the pandemic. "I would like to announce to all our citizens now that there will be a curfew in place from midnight on April 17 until midnight on April 19," hesaid.

Erdoan also slammed the media for critical coverage of the government's handling of the coronavirus spread:

"Certain media institutions have used this incident and pandemic measures in general as an excuse, and virtually declared war on their own country with their articles and columnists, like they have always done. Instead of contributing to our countrys fight in this critical time, they have all constantly spewed hate with lies or wrongful information, which is a sign of a more dire disease than the coronavirus."

Erdoan stated that there were few countries in the world that had been as transparent as Turkey regarding both the level of contagion and what measures hadbeen taken. "Those trying to disrupt this transparency with questions like, 'Are the decisions being made in councils that do not have authority?'aim not to seek the truth, but to stir trouble," he said.

Some Turkish medical experts who shared critical opinions on the governments response to the outbreak or urged stricter isolation measures have faced arrest and were forced to apologise.

The Turkish Medical Association has warned that the number of cases is significantly higher than those announced by the Health Ministry, and that Turkish authorities still refuse to reveal the locations of infections or deaths, while detaining journalists who attempt to do so.

More than 300 people in Turkeyhave been detainedfor social media posts related to coronavirus.

Erdoan continued;

"This delirium by those who try to confuse our people and to darken their hearts with publications that are a product of their dark and sullied minds would not be tolerated for a single day in other countries, rest assured.

Democracy, pluralism, and the presence of many voices are not an issue in Turkey. The issue in Turkey is the abuse of democracy, ideological bigotry blinding people, and the endless tolerance to ugly voices.

Those who work night and day to demoralise our people, with their terrorist organisations, media, and political enterprises, will one day drown in their own pits of hate and division."

Those who thought they were the only owners of the country have been behind every coup, every chaos, Erdoan said.

What youve done for years is not journalism, its doom-mongering. That time is gone now. Our country will be rid of not just the coronavirus, but these media and politics viruses as well, God willing.

Erdoan accused main opposition leader Kemal Kldarolu of mythomania, saying he has no knowledge of what was happening in the world, the country or his own municipalities.

Turkey is taking precautions to protect employment, support pensioners and those who have lost their incomes, keeping small businesses and artisans afloat, and to support production, Erdoan said.

According to the president, some 4.5 million citizens have received direct payments, and workers who were not eligible for the short-term work benefits would start to receive a monthly salary of 1,170 liras ($175). Erdoan announced developments in the form of monetary support as follows:

The loans allocated to small businesses and artisans have reached 4.1 billion liras ($603.3 million), and an additional 1.5 billion liras were offered to small business owners through a bank card system. The Credit Guarantee Fund-backed continued employment financing has received more than 66,000 applications, and close to 30 billion liras have been allocated to some 35,000 companies whose applications have finished processing.

Debts for public banks and finance institutions, some 21 billion liras ($26.3 billion), have been postponed. Car loans, mortgages and credit card payments, worth some 41 billion liras, have also been postponed. Halkbank has postponed collection of 3.5 billion liras ($4.30 billion) in loan payments for small businesses. Farmers, livestock breeders and food manufacturers will receive support as well, with the government working to make available for agriculture some land that belongs to the Treasury.

"The public has put forth all resources to support all industries, but the private banks have not done well at all during these trying times. We expect private banks to do what falls on their shoulders in these difficult times our country and nation are going through," Erdoan said.

We are a country that has the necessary economic infrastructure to overcome this tumultuous time, glory to God, Erdoan said. We will not bow down to the IMF program or any imposition that would indebt our country.

With the steps we have taken and will take, we are determined to not let anybody uncared for, and to share the burden in a just manner.

Turkish people have shown a noble attitude with their support to the governments national solidarity campaign, similar to when they sacrificed in compliance with the severe measures implemented during Turkeys war of independence, Erdoan said.

Link:
Turkey will not bow down to the IMF program - Erdoan - Ahval

The Cipher Briefs Academic Incubator program partners with colleges and Universities across the country on highlighting the next generation of national security leaders. If your program is interested in joining the Academic Incubator, which provides free Cipher Brief memberships for enrolled students and faculty, send an email to[emailprotected]

Youssef Elshamy is a Masters student in the International Security program at George Mason University. His research focuses on Middle Eastern security issues that are related to terrorist organizations, terrorist tactics, and methods ofradicalization. He is also an intern at the Counter Terrorism Group (CTG).

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly expressed a grand vision of restoring his countrys power and influence to that of the Ottoman Empire era. In practical terms, this would require Turkey to become a moderating influence in Middle Eastern politicsespecially when it comes to political Islam perpetuated by dominant groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Moreover, it would need to be capable of reconciling the Muslim world and Europe. However, this vision is failing and will continue to fail. This failure is due to Erdogans suppression of democratic reforms, support for radical Islamism, and an aggressive foreign policy that harms the Turkish population.

Erdogans vision stems from an idealistic outlook on the grandeur of the Ottoman Empire and the extensive capacity for political engagement that it wielded. Therefore, he wants to restore the former Ottoman Empires glory, in order to achieve greater political control not just in Turkey, but also in the Middle East and Europe. Doing so would shape Turkeys relationships with the rest of the world and bolster its influence on social, political, and economic matters.

Erdogan took a number of steps to pursue his vision following his rise to power, including overseeing significant economic and religious transformations of Turkish society. From an economic perspective, Erdogan made an effort to elevate Turkeys economy through localized production, as well as improved energy, transport, and trade capacity. Regarding religion, he has extended Islamic influence by encouraging construction of multiple mosques and leaning more towards Islamism.

When Erdogan took power in 2003, Turkey was largely a secular country, but that is no longer the case seventeen years into his rule. The president and his supporters portray him as the model leader of all Muslims, escalating to the point where Erdogan now supports Islamists

particularly the Muslim Brotherhoodin countries such as Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. He uses his influence with the Muslim Brotherhood to generate soft power, a decision that has progressively developed into a propaganda tool. For example, because of the aforementioned connections, Turkey uses Sunni religious arenas, provides scholarships to Turkish universities, and pays for heritage trips to Turkey in order to establish its influence throughout the Muslim world. These actions specifically target the Middle Eastern youth to manipulate them to serve Erdogans long-term Islamic agenda.

In addition to supporting Islamist groups abroad, under Erdogan, Turkey has become considerably more assertive in the Middle East and parts of North Africa both economically and militarily. For example, in Cyprus, Erdogan has been reluctant to decrease his control of oil and natural gas exploration. He has also placed Turkish troops in Iraq, despite the Iraqi governments objections, in a bid to uphold his brutal war against Kurds.

At the height of Syrian conflict, Erdogan allowed foreign fighters to venture across the Turkish border to support the fight against embattled Syrian President Bashas al-Assad. Erdogans adoption of hard power tactics is also evident from Turkeys establishment of military bases in Qatar and Somalia. Turkey and Qatar are unified in their support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which poses a threat to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies. In Somalia, Turkey has established its military foothold under the guise of training Somali soldiers.

When the Arab Spring began, the Middle East was a horse race: states started competing with each other to exert their influence in an effort to fill the power vacuum. Erdogan placed his bet on the Muslim Brotherhood as his vehicle for hegemony in the Middle East. By supporting these Islamists, Erdogan believed that he would increase Turkeys influence in Egypt, Syria and Tunisia. The gambit has failed though, eventually limiting his influence in the Middle East and amongst secular individuals in Turkey.

Overall, Erdogans vision is failing because the combination of support for Islamist groups and Erdogans forceful foreign policy approach have created problems for Turkey with virtually all of its neighbors. The Muslim Brotherhoods unpopularity, both in the Middle East and around the globe, has hampered Turkeys influence.

As a result, Erdogans vision, while seemingly noble, is virtually unachievable. He has abandoned most democratic reforms for which he advocated when rising to the apex of Turkeys leadership. Rather, he has turned towards methodical Islamization of Turkey, destroying democratic pillars and secular values that have previously worked to the countrys advancement. Association with Islamist groups and the militarization of Turkeys foreign policy have not helped Erdogans cause either.

Erdogan is likely to continue failing as his popularity wanes both nationally and internationally. Turkeys slide into authoritarianism will set the country back in terms of democracy, civil rights and economic development. In the Middle East, Erdogan will alienate other Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, thus creating more turmoil instead of unity. Islamization of Turkey is likely to drive the rest of Europe further away, eliminating chances of collaboration with the West.

As a result of Erdogans failure, Turkeys relations with America are likely to remain strained for the foreseeable future. In spite of these challenges, American policymakers should strive to prioritize the long-term potential of America-Turkey bilateral relations. Turkey remains a NATO member, its geographic location provides strategic importance, and its centrality to U.S. objectives in the Middle East warrant continued association. U.S. policy analysts and makers should use this sustained engagement to expand civil ties, support Turkish civil society, and use prospects of economic relations to advocate for better governance.

Erdogan desire to revive the Ottoman Empire is bound to dramatically fail. Erdogan is forcefully imposing his will on the population by subduing democratic reforms, associating with extreme Islamists, avoiding economic development, and inciting war against organizations that do not threaten the Turkish state. These actions will ultimately fail while costing Turkey an opportunity to become a world power. Although this failure might dissuade various countries from pursuing relations with Turkey, the United States should invest in continued engagement, to avail Turkish civil society of much needed guidance on democratic governance and protection of civil rights.

The Cipher Briefs Academic Partnership Programwas created to highlight the work and thought leadership of the next generation of national security leaders. If your school is interested in participating,send an email to[emailprotected].

Read more national security perspectives and insights inThe Cipher Briefandsign up for our free daily newsletter.

Read more from the original source:
The Problem with Erdogan's Grand Vision - The Cipher Brief

Where does incompetence end and crime begin? asked an appalled German chancellor in the First World War on learning that his chief military commander planned to renew his bloody but futile attacks on the western front.

President Trump is showing a similar disastrous inability during the coronavirus pandemic to shift away from his well-tried tactics of claiming non-existent successes and blaming everybody for his blunders except for himself. It is his first true crisis in his three years in the White House and, like that German general, he is visibly incapable of changing the way he deals with it.

Much virtual ink has been spilled over the last three years about the ineptitude and isolationism of the Trump presidency, and how far it will erode American hegemony. The pandemic has posed the question more starkly than ever before, but it has also provided something of an answer. Crudely put, the US will not remain the one single superpower if the rest of the world sees evidence day after day that the country is run by a crackpot who cannot cope with a global calamity.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

More is at stake here than the future of the Trump presidency. Over the past decade, Trumpian nationalist populist leaders have taken power all around the world, and they too are being tested and found wanting. Without exception, they have shown themselves to be better at winning (or fixing) elections than they are at combating the virus. Some admit the gravity of the outbreak, but use it to enhance their power and silence their critics. Others reject social distancing and restrictive measures as unnecessary, or denounce them as a hoax cooked up by the media. What comes across in all these cases is that Trumpian regimes, for all their self-serving talk of threats, do not know what to do when there is a real threat to their nation.

In India, the Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, locked down his country with just four hours notice, forcing millions of jobless migrant labourers with little money or food to trek hundreds of miles to their home villages.

In Brazil, the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, took an opposite tack, downplaying the crisis and defying his own health ministrys appeal for social distancing by going into the street to buy doughnuts and mingle with his supporters: one film shows him wiping his nose with his wrist before shaking hands with an elderly woman.

Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is reluctant to do anything to stall the Turkish economy and is jailing journalists who say he is not doing enough for victims of the virus. In Hungary, the prime minister, Viktor Orban, used the pandemic as an excuse to pass a law suspending elections and enabling him to rule indefinitely by decree. The dire state of underfunded Hungarian hospitals is ignored.

What might be loosely called the Trump playbook though much of it predates Trump, and has been used by populist nationalist demagogues through history falls short when it comes to dealing effectively with a real rather than a concocted crisis. However, comforting though it would be to suppose that this would discredit leaders who pretend to be national saviours, this does not necessarily follow. In places such as Hungary, Turkey and India, the media is largely under the control of the ruling party, and news of its mismanagement of the crisis will be suppressed regardless of the toll.

Yet the pandemic is exposing the weaknesses of regimes from Washington to Delhi and Sao Paulo to Budapest. Autocracy has its disadvantages since, at the core of these governments, is a supreme leader with devoted followers who believe that he can do no wrong. Trump may have drawn back from his claim that he enjoys monarchical powers and can do without Congress, but the boast shows his authoritarian inclinations.

Crises expose the poor judgement of such dictatorial regimes, where leaders surround themselves with cheerleaders and courtiers who tell them what they want to hear. A diplomat in Baghdad once told me that among the senior lieutenants of Saddam Hussein, the only safe course was to be 10 per cent tougher than the boss. Trump may not shoot advisers who contradict him, like Saddam did, but he does sack them and shows equal intolerance towards dissenting views as the Iraqi dictator.

The Trumpian generation of leaders suffers from a further disadvantage: they come from deeply polarised countries, and are both the symptom and cause of those divisions. Minorities are persecuted: Muslims in India; Kurds in Turkey; Latin American immigrants in the US. The new authoritarians are happy to rule countries that are split down the middle, but they are finding that successfully fighting a pandemic requires a higher degree of national cohesion than they can deliver.

ER doctor blasts Trump for stopping WHO funding amid global pandemic

The pandemic will rock many of these regimes, but censorship and aggressive government PR may limit its political impact. The devastating Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19 only gained its name because Spain was one of the few countries that did not censor accounts of its ravages.

The coronavirus may ebb, or news of it be suppressed, but it will be impossible to hide the deep economic depression likely to follow in its wake. It was the Great Crash of 1929 that led to the rise of Hitler and the advance of communism, fuelling ever-increasing political violence in the 1930s. A post-pandemic Great Depression mark II may have a similarly explosive political effect, turning the 2020s into the same sort of troubled time in our century as the 1930s were in the last. Rival nation-states will once again confront each other and international organisations such as the UN and the EU, as with the League of Nations of old, will retreat into irrelevance. Enhanced international cooperation and integration, which once appeared to be where the world was heading, are turning out to be a mirage.

As Trump presides over the break-up of the international order and the ebb-tide of US hegemony, it is difficult to think of any historic figure that precisely resembles him. But one contender should surely be Kaiser Wilhelm II, the swaggering, opinionated German emperor with catastrophically poor judgement, who led his country to defeat in the First World War. As with Trump, he warned somewhat prematurely of the rise of China and the yellow peril. And, again like Trump, he forecast that the great crisis that he could not cope with would soon be over, promising his soldiers in 1914 that they would be home before the leaves fall.

Go here to see the original:
Trump, Erdogan, Modi, Orban, Bolsonaro populist nationalists have met their match in the coronavirus - The Independent

"We were the first to identify the expected outbreak of the pandemic. We took early measures and now we can reap the fruits," said this week Turkeys Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. But the truth is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long belittled the threat the coronavirus posed to Turkey, vowing to keep the country free of COVID-19.

Haredi leaders learn harsh corona lesson as Israel sends in the troopsHaaretz

As infection rates spiked across the world and Turkey seemed to be lagging behind, ridiculous theories circulated on social media claiming the Turks were immune "because of their DNA structure."

Turkey now faces a major acceleration of the outbreak, with nearly 40,000 cases, and has very little ammunition left. Measures such as turning private hospitals to coronavirus treatment facilities, housing medical teams in military camps, banning gatherings and imposing partial closures in many provinces, have failed to be effective. Turkey is currently ninth globally in rate of infections, a huge leap since the countrys first official case was announced on March 11.

Just like any other country badly hit by the coronavirus, Turkey is now forced to mitigate two worrying threats: an exponential growth in the number of cases and an economic crisis putting entire sectors at risk. Tourism, for example, made up about five percent of Turkeys gross domestic product (GDP), but has almost entirely shut down. Some 1.2 million workers in the tourism sector are at risk of losing their job.

Not only hotels, restaurants and the entertainment industry have been hit by the pandemic, but also big food companies, who rely on their income from supplying products to hotels and could go bankrupt. Two-thirds of Turkeys tourism revenues are normally generated between March and September, but the sectors activity is unlikely to resume until July, and thats according to an optimistic estimate. This has far-reaching ramifications on the Turkish economy and the states budget, which already has to support 4.5 million unemployed citizens.

About three weeks ago the government adopted a $14.5-billion aid program, including a delay value-added tax and national insurance fee collection, an increase in minimum pension payment to $249, loans under improved conditions and suspension of debt payments. But workers and business owners who lost at least a part of their income would not get any assistance beyond what the law stipulates, even though their needs are growing and prices are only going up.

Turkey has $18 billion in debts it is required to pay back within the next three months, while it also has to fund its war in Syria and cover costs related to hosting nearly four million Syrian refugees. On the bright side, there was no major coronavirus outbreak in its refugee camps or among the millions of refugees living in Turkey, many without any government supervision.

But if the virus spreads among refugees, Turkey will likely be unable to contain the outbreak on its own. It would need international medical and financial aid at time when international funds are rather resistant to provide money. A source of funding that could have helped Turkey now would be its foreign currency reserves, but it has nearly none left. In February it held only about $1.5 billion in reserve, after spending many billions to stimulate the failing Turkish lira.

We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting.

Please try again later.

The email address you have provided is already registered.

Erdogan, an economic magician who rescued Turkey from a crisis in the early 2000s and hiked up average annual growth to 7 percent for over a decade, is now required to pull new rabbits out of his hat to deal with both crises. Politically, almost nothing stops him from bringing forth any legislation or decree; the central bank may be independent, but its president unofficially reports to Erdogan. On the presidents orders, he already reduced interest rates several times to encourage loans. If the budget needs tweaking or if the budget deficit was to be wildly expanded, no political opposition would stand in the presidents way.

At the same time, it is unclear to what extent Erdogan himself or his son-in-law, Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak, are aware of the economic dangers such moves might entail. Especially when no one can tell when exactly the country will resume regular economic activity. Reports on disagreements between Albayrak, who opposed shutting down the country, and Health Minister Koca, who argues Turkey wont be able to eradicate the virus without a complete shutdown, may show that serious debates are taking place, considering all aspects of this crisis. But the final decision is made by Erdogan, who said that under all circumstances, factories and machines must continue operating.

The president has called on citizens to donate money to the fight against the coronavirus and show solidarity, unity and loyalty to the state and its policies. The pandemic, so it seems, is an excellent political opportunity for Erdogan to make it clear to the public that he is only one who can rescue them. Those unwilling to adopt this theory, still criticizing the leader, may end up in interrogation rooms or behind bars, as has already happened to several dozen citizens who dared criticizing the government on social media.

Read more here:
In coronavirus crisis, Erdogan faces an opponent he cant silence - Haaretz

Many had expected that rights and freedoms would be among the first victims of the coronavirus crisis in Turkey, as they have been in any other turmoil in the country. Indeed, health professionals disputing the official tally of coronavirus cases have faced probes or seen their social media accounts blocked, while journalists have landed in police custody for their coverage of the pandemic, including one already in prison, pending trial for a tweet lampooning a donation campaign launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Such incidents have hardly come as a surprise, but few could have foreseen the crisis that erupted last week. As Turkeys infection cases shot up, prompting tighter restrictions to contain the outbreak, the government barred opposition-held local administrations from raising funds to help those worst affected by the economic impact of the pandemic. While the move is alarming in terms of civil rights and freedoms, it also speaks volumes about Erdogans fears, the vicious circles squeezing Turkish politics and what could be in store down the road.

Underlying the crisis is the debacle that Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered in last years local elections. The opposition won the mayoral races in Turkeys main urban centers, including Ankara and Istanbul, dealing Erdogan the biggest setback in his political career. The loss of Istanbul, where Erdogan served as a mayor in the 1990s, was especially hard to swallow for the president, who forced a rerun of the vote, only to see his candidate lose with a bigger margin.

Since then, Erdogan has sought to restrict the powers of local administrations in big cities, while the highly popular mayors of Ankara and Istanbul both members of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) have often found themselves in the squeeze of AKP-dominated municipal assemblies.

And now the government appears very much irked by the rising profiles of the Ankara and Istanbul mayors, who have actively sought to assist citizens amid the pandemic, including through donation campaigns to support the poor and small tradesmen forced out of business. Their fundraisers, however, could last only a few days.

On March 31, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu barred local administrations from fundraising unless authorized by Ankara-appointed governors, a day after Erdogan announced his own nationwide campaign to collect donations from the public. As a result, banks blocked the fundraising accounts of municipalities. Soylu argued that unauthorized fundraising by local administrations would mean that they seek a different state and a [separate] government, while Erdogan said that would amount to a state within a state.

Such arguments are devoid of legal basis, and the freezing of municipality accounts is a flagrant breach of the law. In democratic countries, people are free to donate to individuals and institutions of their choice, barring any clear prohibitions in the law. Article 15 of Turkeys Municipality Law openly authorizes municipalities to borrow and accept donations. The law was passed by the AKP itself in 2005, when Erdogan was prime minister.

Moreover, not only opposition-held municipalities, but also local administrations run by the AKP as well as variousIslamic communities, including groups close to Erdogan, had launched fundraisers in various provinces across the country.

Obviously, the ban was deemed necessary at the expense of misconstruing the law when the opposition mayors embarked on collecting donations from the public. But why?

To start with, power in Turkey has been concentrated in the hands of a single individual: the president. So, if the people need assistance or some other form of benevolence, only the omnipotent president is supposed to deliver it. The medical aid that Turkey sent last week to Spain and Italy, the epicenters of the pandemic in Europe, offered ample illustration of how power has become personalized in Turkey. The boxes bore labels identifying the sender as the presidency of the Republic of Turkey the first time that a state-to-state shipment by Ankara was labeled as such rather than simply the Republic of Turkey.

Looking from another perspective, Erdogan appears bent on his policy of polarization, even in such grave times of crisis. The assistance that the CHP-run Ankara and Istanbul municipalities have extended to the needy many of them AKP voters has helped foster a spirit of solidarity in a society that has long been polarized over faith and political affiliations. But a Turkey free from divisions between the secular and the pious or the conservative and the modern must be looking threatening to populist politics.

Also, the CHP mayors efforts to reach out to citizens in bad straits and raise funds for the needy challenge Erdogans long-standing narrative that the secularist CHP is an elitist party, aloof from the people and inept in serving them, unlike the AKP, which he frames as the true representative of the devout masses and national values. A striking example of how far such dichotomies have gone could be seen in a guidebook on psychological support for schoolchildren, which made the headlines in January after being distributed to school counselors across the country by the Education Ministry. In the book, affectionate mothers and other females representing good behavior are all depicted as veiled women, while bad behaviors, including the abuse of children, are visualized in women without headscarves.

The socially-minded efforts of opposition mayors are obviously a threat to this image of good and bad that is being fed to the public. YetErdogans onslaught on the municipalities carries a serious potential to backfire. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas have both vowed to sustain their assistance efforts despite the freezing of donation accounts. By impeding citizens volunteering to donate to their municipalities to help fellow townsmen in need, Erdogan might end up boosting the popularity of the mayors, just as his refusal to concede defeat in Istanbul last year led him to face a bigger defeat in the rerun.

Moreover, reports abound that Erdogans own donation campaign has effectively become compulsory for many public servants at the behest of superiors eager to please the government. The Trade Union of Education and Science Laborers, for instance, saidthat many teachers have been forced to donate, while some muftis,who head the provincial branches of the Religious Affairs Directorate, have reportedly asked staff topresent bank receipts to attest their donations.

For the first time perhaps, Erdogan and his government appear to have fallen behind in steering the agenda, trying to react to others who have set the tone. Moreover, their way of reacting has involved naked coercion in the glare of the public eye. The coronavirus crisis could further deepen the political crisis that Erdogan has been undergoing for some time and lead to developments jolting the power balance in Turkish politics.

Found in: journalists, akp, donations, covid-19, chp, recep tayyip erdogan, coronavirus, turkish politics

Read the original here:
Turkey Erdogan claims monopoly on goodness, but it might backfire - Al-Monitor