Turkey in 2018: The war of the presidents
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees his predecessor, Abdullah Gul, as a rival and potential threat to his authority in the coming year.
For those who know Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his predecessor Abdullah Gul, a war between the two should not come as a surprise. The only mystery was its timing, and now we know it has just begun.
Deliberately keeping his distance from Erdogan, Gul has issued some critical but cautious statements against the current president's practices for some time now. Yet the declaration of war came when Gul issued a statement that was critical of a new emergency decree that critics say grants impunity to civilians who go after Erdogan’s opponents.
Fully equipped for the war, Erdogan has now invited Gul to engage in conventional warfare. Gul, on the other hand, is well-aware that the war imposed upon him is asymmetrical and that Erdogan can be ruthless when it comes to burying rivals. Therefore, it seems that Gul would prefer a guerrilla war with hit-and-run tactics. Given the uneven balance of power between the two, Gul's choice may be legitimate.
Perhaps this is exactly why Gul's modus operandi in this war hasn’t impressed anti-Erdogan circles. Indeed, some leftists and liberals are as angry at Gul as they are at Erdogan supporters. Timur Kuran, a Turkish-American professor at Duke University, is one such individual. “Abdullah Gul will probably be remembered as the Neville Chamberlain of Turkish politics. He spent the past decade appeasing Erdogan, missing every chance to stop the destruction of Turkey’s democracy. To regain credibility, he’ll need to do much more than whisper mild discomfort,” Kuran said on Twitter, echoing the feelings of those who have high hopes for Gul.
