Turkey’s Deepening Polarization
A recent poll shows declining support for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and AKP policies.
The struggle for freedom and peaceful coexistence in Turkey is intensifying. The events triggered spontaneously by the struggle for saving the trees in Gezi Park have now entered a new phase, where all social actors are speaking in a higher pitch.
The transition to this new phase is marked by the breaking of yet another taboo in Turkey — the one shielding Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been glorified to the utmost and gained an untouchable status among his supporters over the past five or six years. This, however, is natural because the social transformation under way is so profound that it leaves no room for breeding taboos and cults.
Optimists believe that the new phase is inevitable for the maturing Turkish democracy and that the diverse social structure, both strong and porous in terms of identities, would not acquiesce to any new tutelage or a high-handed authoritarian order.
They may be right. But this only underscores the main axis of conflict in the new phase. The escalating fight will be between the proponents of freedom, diversity and tolerance and those who seek to only change the shackles. It is obvious that Turkey is entering a worrisome bottleneck.
