Mediaboss Marketing

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speak at the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges Economic Council in Ankara on Feb. 7. Voters will decide in April whether to give Erdogan broad, new powers that would eliminate Yildirim's job. Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speak at the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges Economic Council in Ankara on Feb. 7. Voters will decide in April whether to give Erdogan broad, new powers that would eliminate Yildirim's job.

This spring, voters in Turkey are being asked if they want to transform their government, giving broader executive powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Opposition parties say the proposed constitutional changes would put Turkey on the road to one-man rule, but supporters say in these dangerous times, Turkey needs a strong leader to fend off enemies at home and abroad.

The vote is expected in April, and the government is already in campaign mode, trumpeting its accomplishments and promising more if the referendum is approved.

What might have been just another sleepy ribbon-cutting ceremony, a recent re-launch of a long-stalled Istanbul housing project, turned into a full-on rally. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a flag-waving crowd the answer to Turkey's problems is a "yes" vote on a strong presidency.

Yildirim was only appointed prime minister last year, but he's campaigning hard for voters to eliminate his job. Under the new system, Turkey would have no prime minister. His executive and administrative powers would be transferred to Erdogan.

Yildirim also showed the hard edge of the "yes" campaign, likening Erdogan's opponents to outlawed Kurdish militants and backers of cleric Fetullah Gulen. Erdogan accuses Gulen of backing last summer's failed coup attempt against him, something Gulen who lives in Pennsylvania denies.

President Donald Trump spoke to Erdogan this week, affirming Turkey's status as a key strategic partner and NATO ally. It's not clear what Trump thinks about Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian style, which bothered the Obama administration.

Erdogan began running Turkey in 2002 as prime minister, and has effectively controlled the country ever since, despite moving into what had previously been the largely figurehead role of president in 2014. He presided over years of robust economic growth, but became entangled in regional and internal conflicts that brought a wave of terrorist attacks and economic decline to the country.

Some Turks seem to be rallying around Erdogan in part because of the current gloomy outlook. Faisal Demir, 55, believes Western powers have it in for Turkey, so everyone he knows is ready to stand with their tough-talking president.

"In the history of our republic, we haven't had a better leader," he says. "And now the wolves are living among the sheep, you know? These are dangerous times, so we're going to say yes to these changes."

Many Turks agree that the country could use a new constitution. The current one was enacted in 1982, after a military coup toppled the elected government. But there's little agreement about how exactly it should be changed.

"Yes" voters argue that America has a strong president, so Turkey should, too. And there would be similarities: like the U.S. president, Erdogan would become a partisan leader, and his cabinet picks would be independent from Turkey's parliament. Currently, the cabinet members are also members of parliament and are accountable to parliament in various ways.

But analysts say there are crucial differences, especially when it comes to democratic checks against presidential powers. The proposal would give the president increased influence over the Turkish parliament, as well as more control over the hiring and firing of judges. The changes would also permit Erdogan to run for two more terms, potentially remaining in office until 2029.

Ersin Kalaycioglu, a political scientist at Sabanci University in Istanbul, says it's impossible to predict how Erdogan would use some of these new powers, but critics are worried nonetheless.

"It [would be] a strong presidency, nothing like any president of the United States has ever experienced," he says. "If this amendment carries, then for a while, Turkey will have a system with very little, if any, checks and balances, as far as many of the experts can see."

In Istanbul's Balik Pazari or Fish Market Street, a silver-haired fishmonger named Sener doesn't want to give his family name since he plans to vote no on the referendum. He says he doesn't expect a level playing field, with the media already focusing on the "yes" campaign. Dissenters may be treated harshly.

"I saw a bunch of young people, they wanted to demonstrate against the referendum," Sener says. "They got arrested. So that's the deal if you say no, you get arrested."

At the moment, experts say Erdogan is enjoying even greater powers than he would if the referendum is approved. That's because Turkey has been under a state of emergency since last July's failed coup attempt. Over 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended, and thousands have been charged with backing the coup or supporting terrorists. The constitutional changes, if approved, would only go into effect once the state of emergency is lifted.

Constitutional law professor Ibrahim Kaboglu at Marmara University has spoken out against the idea of asking Turks to hold such an important vote while under a state of emergency. He fears the "no" camp will be intimidated, and the media will be afraid of offending the government. He calls it "a big and essential problem. It's a serious, serious problem."

Just days after talking with NPR about the referendum, Kaboglu was himself caught up in the latest emergency decree fired from his job, along with hundreds of other academics.

Link:
Turkey's President Erdogan Pushes For Broader Powers ...

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

The Saudi publication al-Arabiya reported that the King and Erdogan discussed bilateral relations and aspects of cooperation between the two brotherly countries, but neither Turkish nor Saudi authorities specified the details of their conversation. In addition to meeting with the Saudi King, Erdogan engaged in a 50-minute meeting withSaudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Al-Arabiya added for context that Erdogan had previously noted Turkey had made headway in the fight to liberate the Syrian town of al-Bab from the Islamic State terrorist group. The ongoing civil war in Syria and related war against the Islamic State has been of much interest to Saudi Arabia. While the Gulf nation has not directly participated in the multilateral fight, Riyadh has expressed concern over Irans growing influence in the region.

Speaking to the Ankara-friendlySabah newspaper,Abdulrahman Abdullah Al Zamil, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers and Head of Zamil Group, said he was optimistic that the meeting would result in positive conclusions regarding how to diffuse the situation in Syria. Dictator Bashar al-Assad has been waging a civil war in Syria against rebels seeking a new government since 2011.

We are both considering the interests of the people, Al Zamil said. Everybody is tired of it. Humans are being killed. So, the world now realizes because of this that terrorism has become distressing. So, it is in the interest of all of us to bring it to an end.

Erdogan also sat for an interview with al-Arabiya while in Riyadh and reportedly accused Assad of one million murdersand defended the Muslim Brotherhood, for which the Trump administration is currently mulling a U.S. terrorist group designation. The full interview will reportedly air later in the week.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey have long retained close contact.Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef most recently visited Ankara in September to discuss both economic ties and the increasingly looming influence of Iran over the region. A month later, the Arabia Coalition issued a statement that Saudi Arabia was committed to the fight against ISIS in Syria, indicating Saudi Arabia may be seeking a more prominent role in resolving that conflict.

King Salman himself visited Turkey in April 2016 to discuss regional and international issues. One again, Syria loomed large in their talks, though at the time Erdogan also reportedly discussed the civil war in Yemen with his Saudi counterpart. The Saudi government is engaged in military activity in Yemen in favor of the legitimate government there and against the Shiite Houthi rebels who receive support from Iran.

Following his meeting with Saudi officials, Erdogan landed in Qatar Tuesday evening where he will meetEmir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, according to Turkish state-run publication Anadolu Agency.The Syria crisis, developments in Yemen and the fight against terrorism will all be on the agenda of talks [in Qatar] due to their negative impact on regional stability, Turkish Ambassador to Qatar Ahmet Demirok said of the visit. Anadolu also mentions the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq as topics of discussion in the Gulf nation.

Visit link:
Turkey's Erdogan Completes Visit to Saudi Arabia for Talks on Economy, Syria - Breitbart News

The Turkish Presidents populist leadership draws on the perennially useful Black Turks-White Turks dichotomy.

President Erdogan speaks to his supporters, Istanbul, July 16, 2016.Depo/Press Association. All rights reserved.Turkey is set for a tough referendum campaign period as parties take to the stage to persuade the electorate to vote yes or no for the April 16 referendum about a new presidential system. President Erdoan also stated that the referendum should be seen as a response to the 15 July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, claiming that the position of those who will say no in the referendum could mean siding with July 15.

Following this speech, supporters of NO accused Erdogan of polarizing the people in Turkey. However, far from being a crime, polarization has become the most important strategy of politics for Erdogan. Erdogan's polarization strategy is shaped by the AKPs history and how this approach responds to the public.

The presidents backers often cite three main reasons for his popularity and that of his party, the AKP. The first is social: Erdoan is perceived to be a man of the people, a representative of the lower and lower-middle classes, who felt ignored by his predecessors. The thing is, before Erdoan the presidents didnt value people, said a man who called himself Ismail, waving an AKP flag. But Erdoan cares about them. Thats the main thing. We see him as one of us.

So reported the Guardian following the July 15, 2016, military coup attempt in Turkey. Citizens from the lower classes in Turkey have supported Erdogan because they believe that Erdogan might be their father, brother or close friend. Erdogan honed his discourse and speeches for the lower classes to gain their support and he is very successful in realizing this goal. Crucial to Erdogans lower class mythology is the dichotomy of White Turks-Black Turks. White Turk has come to be associated with an urban cosmopolitan identity, modern feminism, secularism, while the Black Turk stands for the traditional, the conservative and lower-classes. One of the columnists, Burak Bekdil claims that Erdogans success story is precisely the victory of the Black Turks over the white Turks and illustrates the point with an anecdote about one of Tayyips supporters;

I saw one of the crowd of paper-tissue-seller-boys at the scooter's seat, pretending to ride it fast. I had to buy a few packs of paper tissues to convince the boy to leave the seat to me. An initial conversation on motorbikes and scooters quickly turned into a political chat' with my new, nine-year-old friend. ..How much do you earn? It depends. Sometimes 5 lira a day, sometimes even 25! Fine, but you can't sell paper tissues for all of your life. Any plans for the future? Yes,abi; I'll fight infidels like you and join Uncle Tayyip's' party. Infidels like me? Yes,abi, I saw you drinking wine at the caf One day, the boy said, he would become an MP. I wished him the best of luck. What does your father do for living? No job,abi. Any brothers and sisters? We're 12! But what makes you so fond of your Uncle Tayyip?' He is a good Muslim, and he sent us food, toys and other things. Why do you want to become an MP? Because they are rich and powerful, and I can better fight the infidels. Infidels like me? Like you,abi.

Bekdils reminiscence regarding this child is necessary to understand Erdogans polarization strategy and his popularity among the lower classes. According to some scholars, leaders in authoritarian regimes should redistribute money to keep their supporters and should pay their followers just enough to support them. Interestingly, Bekdils anecdote tells a very different story. Although there is an increase of poor people from the lower classes in Turkey, these people have continued to support Erdogans leadership. The main reason for this support is the notion of Erdogans populist leadership with his lower class metaphors and the perennially useful Black Turks-White Turks dichotomy.

Erdogan uses theterm zenci (Black Turks) in most of his speeches, and always claims that he is proud to be a zenci like the other lower class citizens in Turkey. Following the AKPs second term, Erdogan began to treat uneducated people as Black Turks, like himself. White Turks here are the well-educated, well-to-do Kemalist elites fashioning themselves on (some of) Ataturks ideas. They are often associated with state bureaucracy and the military. Black Turks are those who the White Turks despise as low-educated, lower-class and either still peasants in Anatolian or rural areas or unable to shake off their peasant heritage.Following the Gezi Park protests which of course were forced upon Turkey by these elites, the White Turks of Turkish society, he speaks about them as below:

According to them we dont understand politics. According to them we dont understand art, theatre, cinema, poetry.According to them we dont understand aesthetics, architecture. According to them we are uneducated, ignorant, the lower class, who has to be content with what we are given, needy; meaning, we are a group of negroes.

Peasants or people who live in Anatolian villages are complete Black Turks in Erdogans classification because these people were pressurized by Kemalist elites during the early Republican period. White Turks or Kemalist elites have always mocked them due to their uneducated/conservative identity. This article gives an example of Erdogans mukhtar (local head person in villages) meetings for understanding this phenomenon. Since January 2015, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has delivered monthly speeches to mukhtars, invited in groups to his presidential palace in Ankara. At the first meeting he said that;

"They were mocking me and all my mukhtar brothers by saying 'He cannot even be a mukhtar'. However, this nation elected me deputy, made me the Prime Minister and then elevated me to the office of Presidency by making me the first directly-elected President of the Republic of Turkey.

Overall, Erdogans lower class mythology helped to consolidate and polarize his voters especially after 2011. Indeed the lower class population is far larger numerically than the upper classes in Turkey, and Erdogan is well aware of this. He has used both conservative and traditionalist discourses addressed to the lower classes in such a way as to maintain the loyalty of a mass electorate. I think the polarizing strategy Erdogan used as a trump card in the last elections will also play a vital role in the April 16 referendum.

Link:
Erdogan's mastery of polarization - Open Democracy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Feb. 2, 2017. (photo byADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Author:Cengiz andar Posted February 13, 2017

On Feb. 9, when I heard reports that a Russian aircraft had accidentally bombed a Turkish position in al-Bab, killing four soldiers and wounding 10 others, I did not immediately think that it might not have been an accident. I thought that way because I am generally immune to the conspiracy theories that are rampant in Turkey, just as they are in most Middle Eastern countries.

The Turkish army quickly issued a communiquesaying the bombing was an "accident."However, there was no mention of an accident in the Russian version that came later. In the Russian version, there was nomention of regret either. A day later, the Russians were a bit more articulate. They issued another statement, implicitly putting the blame on the Turkish side for having given the wrong coordinates on the deployment of Turkish troops, resultingin the casualties.

The Turkish General Staff quickly rebuttedthe Russian interpretation, pointing out that the coordinates of the location where the Turkish casualties occurred had been given to the Russian side eight days previouslyand also the night before.

Some in the Turkish media with a soft spot for fantasies claimed that the Syrian regime might have intentionally misled the Russians. There were claims that the air attack was in fact conducted by Syrian air forces or that Syrian forces acted on false intelligence provided by Russian intelligence.

In thisflurry of news, statements and counterstatements, my mind began to work on a conspiracy theory. Only a day and a halfbefore the Russian air attack on the Turkish position, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had had his long-awaited and eagerly expected conversation with USPresident Donald Trump. The conversation lasted some 45 minutes. The Turkish media close to the government, citing presidential sources, reported that the conversation was friendly and cordial. The reports said that the two leaders talkedabout the Turkish militarys Operation Euphrates Shield targeting al-Bab and that Erdogan told Trump that Turkey could undertake the military attack on the Islamic State (IS) to recapture Raqqa. Erdogan said that therefore there was no need for the Americans to supply the Syrian Kurds or relyon them to liberate Raqqa, Turkish media reported.

The American press, including The Washington Post, was careful to underline that Trump was noncommittal on the issue of Raqqa and on whether the Americans would stop cooperating with the Kurds. Nevertheless, the Turkish military started a massive attack onal-Bab and succeeded in penetratinginto the town to capture some key positions.

A day before the Turkish militarys offensive in al-Bab and a few hours before the Erdogan-Trump talk, the Syrian army reached Tadif, only a milesouth of al-Bab.

Considering all thesedevelopments, one could conclude that the Russian bombing of the Turkish position in al-Bab was not an accident.

How so? According to the accepted norms of Middle Eastern ways of interpreting information,this is what transpired: Russia sent a message of displeasure to Turkey because of its growing relationship with the new USadministration.

The Russian bombing was aimedat reminding the Turks not to forget that the main power broker in Syria is not the United States but Russia and that the Turkish side has to make its game plan accordingly.

Perhapsthe timing of the Russian Foreign Ministrys statement regardingthe Syrian Kurdish forces Peoples Protection Units (YPG) was not a coincidence as well. The statement emphasized that the Kurdish presence is necessary for the quest of a peaceful and lasting settlement of the Kurdish issue and that Russia does not consider the Syrian Kurdish groups to be terrorist organizations. The statement came on the same day when the Turkish position was hit by Russians and only hours after it was announced that Erdogan had asked Trump to stop cooperating with the Syrian Kurds.

The Turkish military still cannot even acquire total control of al-Bab, a town thought to be much more easier than Raqqa to deal with, making it very difficult to see how Turkey could effectively replace the Kurds with its forces to liberate IS'Syrian capital.

Militarily, one way Turkey could try to move south toward Raqqa would be to go through Tell Abyad, a Kurdish-held town on the Turkish border.However, that would mean first battling the US-backed Kurdswho have been fighting to take Raqqa.

Perhapsall these considerations led Numan Kurtulmus, a deputy minister and government spokesman,to announce that Turkey's final aim in Syriais al-Bab. On Feb. 11, Kurtulmus saidthat Raqqa does not constitute a direct threat to Turkeys securityand that Operation Euphrates Shield would come to an end after al-Bab. Erdoganhimself had earlier made asimilar statement, indicating thatTurkeys military role in Syria is limited to al-Bab.

However, the Turkish president changed course Feb. 12 and insisted that the Turkish military operation would go on all the way to Raqqa after al-Bab.

There might be a miscommunication. There is no such thing as stoppingwhen al-Bab is secured. The issue of al-Bab is about to be resolved. After that, there are Manbij and Raqqa, Erdogan said.

His last statement could be interpreted as his response to the Russian message.

What is next? A big question mark. Perhaps we will be watching Erdogan between Trump's anvil and Putin's hammer, more and more.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/02/turkey-syria-usa-russia-erdogan-between-trump-and-putin.html

More here:
Erdogan caught between Trump, Putin in Syria war - Al-Monitor

BEIRUT Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took his proposal for a Turkish-backed assault against the Islamic States self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa to the Sunni Arab states of the Persian Gulf on Monday, telling an audience in Bahrain that he wants to create a safe zone in that part of Syria.

Speaking on the first stop of a three-nation gulf tour, Erdogan said the safe zone would encompass 3,475 square miles and include the Syrian town of Manbij, which was taken from the Islamic State in August by Syrian Kurds working closely with the U.S. military.

The Turkish offer to participate in the Raqqa battle is not new, but it has been revived amid reports that President Trump hasordered an overhaul of the Obama administrations plan to arm the Syrian Kurds to assault Raqqa. Turkey vehemently opposes the Pentagons close military relationship with the Syrian Kurds, which became a major source of tension between Turkey and Washington during President Barack Obamas last year in office. The Syrian Kurdish militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), has ties to Turkeys own Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Washington and Ankara and is waging an insurgency in Turkey to secure autonomy for Kurds.

Trumps promise to create a safe zone in Syria long rejected by the Obama administration also appears to have encouraged Erdogan to resurrect an idea that had lapsed since the defeat of the Syrian rebels in Aleppo late last year. Originally promoted by the Syrian opposition, with Turkish support, the concept envisaged enforcing a no-fly zone to prevent the Syrian government from carrying out airstrikes against civilians.

How this latest proposal would work wasnt clear, but Erdogan said the zone would be used to give sanctuary to Arab and Turkmen Syrians and would be terrorist-free an apparent reference to the YPG Kurds as well as the Islamic State.

Erdogan said Turkey envisions participating in the Raqqa offensive as part of the U.S.-led coalition, but he also has made it clear on a number of occasions that he expects Trump to sever Washingtons connections to the YPG.

There has beenno indication from Washington that the United States intends to abandon its alliance with the Kurds, who have emerged as the Pentagons most effective military partner in Syria. The Kurds have beenmaking steady progress with a three-month-old offensive to isolate and encircle Raqqa and are within a few miles of the city.

Meanwhile, Turkish troops and their Arab Syrian rebel allies have been bogged down for the past two months in a fierce battle to capture the Islamic State-held town of Al-Bab, more than 100 miles away. Turkey intervened in Syria in August to help Syrian rebels push the Islamic State out of areas bordering Turkey and also to drive a wedge between two expanding areas of Kurdish control.

Read more:

No decision yet on arming Kurds to fight Islamic State, Trump tells Turkish leader

Obamas White House on a plan to seize Raqqa. Trumps team decided not to pull the trigger.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

View original post here:
Turkey's Erdogan wants to establish a safe zone in the ISIS capital Raqqa - Washington Post