Government's excessive and disproportionate use of power

Lale Kemal

Turkey has become less transparent and there is less freedom of speech -- even none, you might say -- compared with, for instance, just three years ago.

Ironically, this occurred under the same government that saw Turkey break taboos in many areas, such as dissolving the system of military tutelage to a certain extent and awarding some long-denied rights to Turkish Kurds. These policies that improved democratic standards in Turkey from the early years of this government's rule have already become a thing of the past though the same government remains in office.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which came to power for the third time following the June 2011 national elections, is giving signals of a shift from turning Turkey into a democratic state to an authoritarian system. It has halted all democratic reforms and is focusing instead on ways in which it can usurp the basic principles of democracy, such as freedom of expression and the rule of law.

The Gezi Park protests began last year in late May as a demonstration to protect the environment and turned into more than a month of anti-government unrest. This was because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered his anti-riot police to quell the protests with an excessive show of strength. He described the riot police as heroes though they used disproportionate force against the demonstrators, some of whom died, like 15-year-old Berkin Elvan. Instead of charging those police officers with crimes for the heavy-handed approach toward the protesters, an indictment has now been prepared for 250 protesters, accusing them of setting up an organization to undermine state order.

Prime Minister Erdoğan began to reveal his true face with his authoritarian response to the Gezi Park protests, which he also blamed on what he called interest lobbies and international circles, among others.

Erdoğan has finally caught that same old illness that so many Turks have -- being prone to relying on conspiracy theories instead of making rational judgments based on objective criteria.

Explaining incidents with conspiracy theories is a common disease of Turks since putting the blame on others saves the Turks from taking responsibility.

A Turkish professor who was convicted of taking part in a military plot to unseat the current government but later released due to a lack of evidence to support the charges said on a local TV program last week that the Turkish military has come under cyber attack, an attack of information warfare.

According to him, the court that sentenced hundreds of military officers for participating in planning to topple the government in the Sledgehammer coup plot case has similarly come under cyber attack, and both the military and the legal system are unable to thwart this attack.

He claimed that everybody is innocent and that they were victims of a war of information that had prompted the courts to make judgments based on fake documents in the coup plot trial. He also said he did not know who organized the cyber attack.

What was amazing is the fact that the host of this TV program said that he was impressed by the professor's claims.

The professor was not asked to describe the details of this crazy idea of a cyber attack and he would not admit to any of the charges leveled at him. He opted to resort to conspiracy theories to cover up the accusations of preparing a detailed report for the military on Turks from every walk of life that he believed would be used during a coup that the military was planning.

Similarly, Prime Minister Erdoğan opted to lay the blame for the high profile corruption and bribery investigation that became public on Dec. 17 of last year on the Hizmet movement headed by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, as well as what he described as “international dark circles.” But, interestingly enough, Erdoğan has not yet come up with any proof to support his claim that the graft probe was allegedly orchestrated by members of the Hizmet movement and others in order to undermine his power.

Despite Erdoğan's efforts to stop the scandalous corruption and bribery investigation by putting the blame on others, it will continue to haunt him and his party. There is no escape from it; sooner or later the corruption scandal will be examined.

It is a serious current problem that, on orders from the government, a nationwide purge within the police force continues, hundreds of bureaucrats have been removed from their posts, and judges and prosecutors have been reassigned to different positions in an effort to ensure that the corruption files that also implicate Erdoğan himself and his son will be closed forever.

In addition to bureaucratic purges, there are now hundreds of journalists who are jobless as a result of government pressure exerted on media bosses who rely on state tenders. Both businesses close to the Hizmet movement and those who are not supportive of the government's draconian policies to suppress the opposition are feeling the heat. Government tax auditors are being used to fine these businesses -- not necessarily really for tax evasion offenses, but to eliminate them.

The government has been using the state power at its control disproportionately in order to silence opposing views. This situation really frightens me because the very well-being of us Turks has come under threat.

Published on Today's Zaman, 09 May 2014, Friday