Article Scan – January 25th: The collapse of Erdoğan’s way

The collapse of Erdoğan’s way (Ihsan YILMAZ)

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has won elections for four major reasons. First, he and his friends proved themselves to be effective and hardworking politicians at the municipal level.
Second, compared to the previous governments, they gave the image of being a devout Muslim government that would never become corrupt. Third, he promised to stick to the EU process, democratization and reforms which immensely helped the Turkish economy to grow. Fourth, he benefited from victimhood and polarization since the people of this country always empathized with the weak and the wronged. At the moment, Erdoğan has been receiving fatal blows on all these four fronts.

His party, ministers and mayors no longer give the impression that they are hardworking and effective politicians. Rumors about how Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians have become corrupt were always in the public sphere but the fact that Erdoğan had to sacrifice four of his ministers after trying to stop the corruption investigation and interfering with the judiciary for 10 days is telling enough that the evidence of corruption is very strong. Since 2010, he has stopped

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/ihsan-yilmaz_337531_the-collapse-of-erdogans-way.html

Turkey under pressure over jihadists on border (by Semih IDIZ)

It’s unclear how enthusiastic the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is over the Geneva II talks on Syria, given that these talks effectively legitimize the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Ankara continues to insist that this regime has lost all legitimacy. Both Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu are saying that they support these talks, of course, and expressing hope that it bears results.

The recent terrorist bombing at the border and the acrimonious exchange between the Turkish and Syrian foreign ministers at Geneva II hints at the extent to which Turkey has become embroiled in the Syria conflict.

It was nevertheless telling to see Erdogan immediately latch onto the dreadful photographs, which were revealed just before Geneva II kicked off, and which reportedly show the scale of the atrocities committed by the Assad regime. Erdogan insists that these images should be enough to spur the international community to action.

By that, he means action designed to bring down Assad and his regime, a topic that has been his hobbyhorse from the start of the Syrian crisis. That, however, is clearly not in the cards as the international focus turns to a political settlement for Syria based on negotiations between the regime and the opposition.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/turkey-jihadist-terror-syria-civil-war.html#ixzz2rQ6fIlPb

Erdoğan got the EU message on judiciary (by Murat YETKIN)

It is possible to separate Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s stance on the controversial judiciary bill in Turkey as before and after his visit to Brussels where he had top level talks with the European Union officials on Jan. 21.

On his way back from Brussels on Jan. 22, he said he had told EU officials that the removals of judges and prosecutors who are involved in corruption probes from their positions and submitting a bill to the Parliament to have more control on the judiciary should not be counted as political intervention, but “cleaning” the judiciary from the members of what he calls a “parallel structure” within the state apparatus. He had also added that the EU officials “understood,” also meaning “sympathized with” in the way he put it in Turkish, when he explained properly.

According to Radikal newspaper, EU Enlargement Comissioner Stefan Füle has sent two letters to Turkey’s new EU Affairs Minister Mevlit Çavuşoğlu expressing concerns regarding the bill and possible political influence on judiciary.

Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, had made it clear during the joint press conference with Erdoğan on Jan. 21 that the EU wanted to see a judicial system free of political intervention, not more.

When Eroğan came back, he went up to the Presidential Palace on top of Çankaya Hill in Ankara to have his weekly briefing with President Abdullah Gül on January 23.

MORE: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-got-the-eu-message-on-judiciary.aspx?pageID=449&nID=61545&NewsCatID=409

Lira slide becomes headache for Turkey’s embattled Erdogan (By Nevzat Devranoglu and Nick Tattersall)

ISTANBUL, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Turkey’s lira tumbled to new lows on Friday and investors doubted central bank ability to stem the rout as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan seeks to defuse a corruption scandal and stem a challenge to his power.

The lira tumbled beyond 2.33 to the dollar, meaning Turks now need more than twice as many lira to buy dollars as they did at the currency’s peak six years ago, a costly decline in a nation heavily dependent on imports.

Erdogan has overseen a tripling of Turks’ nominal wealth since coming to power in 2002, a record which has formed the basis for his ruling AK Party’s growing margin of victory in three successive elections.

Any threat to that record could cost him at local and presidential elections this year, further tarnishing a reputation under threat from a corruption investigation which has led to the resignation of three ministers and the detention of close business allies.

He says the investigation and accusations have been engineered by a secretive U.S-based islamic cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has strong influence in the police and judiciary. He suspects Gulen of wanting to unseat him, which Gulen denies.

more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/24/turkey-idUSL5N0KY23020140124