Turkey has been in upheaval over the last week, after a failed coup that has allowed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to grab power and plunge the country into dictatorship.
Recent days have seen tens of thousands of judges and teachers purged from their position by a leader critics blast as truly paranoid — and that may be just the beginning.
“I fear, despite the sweepingly drastic measures already seen, more lie on the horizon,” Wayne White, former deputy director of the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Intelligence Office, told Borderless News Online.
Erdogan’s massive purge of the judiciary, which had been a barrier to further Erdogan excesses, suggests the country could see the beginning of show trials orchestrated on media outlets to inflame further his legions of supporters, White said.
On Wednesday, Erdogan convened his National Security Council, indicating he will push through tough new measures to expedite his wide-ranging crackdown, White said.
At the same time, Istanbul has seen street demonstrations by Islamists in support of Erdogan, with some becoming violent.
“His Islamist supporters in the streets have been a problem. They currently rule the streets and have attacked known secularists in some instances—even bringing a call from Erdogan to behave more responsibly,” he said.
Moreover, on the religious front, Erdogan has revived a Turkish tradition not seen since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 — politicizing imams (religious leaders of mosques), calling upon them to urge the faithful to support Erdogan.
The attempted coup was the result of mounting alarm in the military over the Turkish president’s increasingly authoritarian behavior, and happened when a military faction tried to topple him. But the coup backfired, and Erdogan was back in power in less than 24 hours.
The chaos happened during a steady progression of Erdogan’s abuses of power including harassment of journalists; the takeover and closure of Turkey’s biggest newspaper two months ago; the building of a lavish 1,000 room presidential palace; and lackluster efforts against terror group ISIS.
The purge of Turkish education from lower grade teachers to the deans of every college and university across Turkey is just one more indicator that Erdogan is exploiting the failed coup as an opportunity to engage in mass purges of tens of thousands of individuals in positions he believes either have or could be used to oppose him, White said.
The mass firings of around 21,000 teachers show that little judicial thought is being put into these cuts in personnel, he said.
In fact, the educational sector almost certainly had virtually nothing to do with the coup. The vast majority of Turks, whether pro or anti-Erdogan, opposed a military coup within hours. Yet, to a paranoid Erdogan, this meant little, he said.
Erdogan is holding Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen — living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. — and his Turkish sympathizers responsible for the coup attempt, which many say is a bout of presidential paranoia.
“He is attempting to root out anyone, anywhere with any connection to Gulen. And since Gulen’s teachings were still circulating in the educational system, what better place to purge ruthlessly,” he said.
In the end, Turkey could become more like the more authoritarian state control of Abel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt than the relatively secular and reasonably free Turkey of the pre-Erdogan era, White said.
“This is surely the mounting fear of millions of secular Turks initially happy the coup failed,” he said.
On Wednesday, Erdogan instituted a three-month state of emergency, giving his government sweeping powers.
“In justifying this, he injected more paranoia into the discussion by saying the coup might not be over — almost certainly untrue and highly inflammatory,” White said.
“All told, Turkey will plunge ever deeper into a period of wholesale crackdown on everyone Erdogan views as remotely able to challenge him politically and ideologically while thoroughly intimidating their broader moderate and secular constituencies,” White said.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
No material may be fully re-printed or re-broadcast without the written permission of Borderless News Online.
