The Aftershocks Of Gezi Park

Steven A. Cook reports on a recent surge of xenophobia and media crackdowns within Turkey, as the government continues to lash out against coverage of the summer protests:

[I]n the last six months, something has changed. Turkish political discourse is darker and the attacks on foreign observers of Turkish politics have become relentless. During the Gezi Park protests, the thuggish mayor of Ankara, Melih Gokcek, accused a BBC reporter of Turkish origin of being a traitor because she was reporting on the brutal crackdown on demonstrators in his city. Recently, a Dutch journalist named Bram Vermeulen, was informed that his press card was not renewed and that he would not be permitted back into Turkey after his current visa expires, apparently in revenge for his reporting on Turkey’s recent tumult. The Gezi Park protests represent an important point of departure for the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] establishments and its supporters.

Rather than a cause for introspection about why so many Turks—though not a majority by any means—are angry at their government, the ruling party and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cynically framed the narrative in a way that places blame for Turkey’s political turbulence on outsiders seeking to bring the country to its knees. The fact that they have been successful speaks to the continuing trauma of the post-WWI period when foreigners—the British, Greeks, French, and Italians—did actually seek to carve up Anatolia. As a result, a depressingly large number of Turks blamed CNN, the BBC, the “interest rate lobby,” “Zionists,” the American Enterprise Institute, and Michael Rubin for the events surrounding Gezi.

Previous Dish on the Turkish upheaval here.