Orkhan Sattarov, the head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
It seems there is no other European country that would follow current developments in Turkey as attentively as Germany. The special attention to Turkey by Berlin is explained by the presence of a multimillion-strong Turkish community in Germany. Moreover, Germany as the leader of the EU and an important trade partner of Turkey focuses its attention on this country, considering its own political and economic interests.
Even though the German view on protests in Turkey and Premier Erdogan’s reaction to them is critical, it is quite moderate in the context of the continuing crisis. The German mass media reported that Erdogan’s government faced the hardest internal political crisis in its entire history. Yesterday the Turkish Premier heavily criticized Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Today he risks getting into a list of the most criticized dictators, according to journalists and Western society. As well as Assad, Erdogan accuses “extremists” of the clashes. German Spiegel has called him a sultan from Ankara.
The head of the Turkish community in Turkey Kenan Kolat stated to Die Welt that the behavior of the Turkish government’s head was “fascist.” Kolat was shocked by the level of violence which he saw during the suppression of protests in Ankara. “They used so much tear-gas that I could hardly breath, even 1.5 km from the center of the events,” he said. According to him, Erdogan limits people’s freedoms. For example, recently alcohol sales and drinking were forbidden in public places; the influence of the state on the mass media is growing. During the protests the Turkish TV-channel Halk TV was switched off as it broadcasted video and photos from the demonstrations happening in the country.
At the moment, the German government maintains a wait-and-see attitude. The speaker of the government Stefan Seibert stated to journalists that a dialogue and de-escalation of violence were what Turkey needed. “The freedom of will and meetings demands from the law-enforcement agencies an appropriate behavior, according to the law,” Seibert said. At the same time, he noted that he saw no possible influence of the current events in Turkey on the talks about its joining the EU.
At the same time, other German politicians were tougher in their comments on the Turkish developments. The chairman of the European Parliament Martin Shultz called the Turkish police behavior “absolutely inadequate.”
One thing is obvious: Erdogan’s strict statements and his unpleasant comments on participants of the protests do not promote him in the West. Focus cited the recent words by the head of the Turkish government that social nets were a social threat and reminded Erdogan that he had his own microblog in Twitter.
In the international arena every new day of protests plays against Erdogan’s government. The premier loses his authority because of the internal political crisis and the ambiguous behavior of the police. De-escalation of the violence is the only way out of the situation.
