Erdogan’s Governance Challenge
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan must navigate Turkey’s diversity and many constituencies in the current political crisis.
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino angered the Turkish government recently when she suggested two seemingly irreconcilable Turkeys had emerged following the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mismanaging the Gezi Park protests by releasing a heavy-handed police force on peaceful demonstrators.
“Two Turkeys have emerged and there is no hope left that Erdogan can unite them,” Bonino, a proven friend of Turkey and an avid supporter of Ankara’s bid for EU membership, told reporters in Rome on June 18, according to the Italian news agency ANSA cited by the mainstream Turkish media.
Responding to Bonino on the pro-government TGRT channel on June 20, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he was “in a state of infuriation” over the way recent events in Turkey were reported by the Western media. “There is an attempt to create such an atmosphere that even the closest friends of Turkey feel the need to make statements that are hard to understand,” he said.
Pointing at the demonstrations in Brazil, Davutoglu added, “No one is saying there are two Brazils. No one is saying we are worried about Brazil’s future. No one is calling on the Brazilian government with an air of superiority to ‘go and establish a dialogue with [the demonstrators].’” He said, “No foreign minister can talk like this about my country,” and, “In Turkey, there is only one Turkey.”
