Hurriyet Daily News published an article by Semih Idiz devoted to the current political situation in Turkey and Egypt. "There is a difference between Turkey and Egypt. To start off with no one can imagine the kind of gay pride parade that we had in Istanbul over the weekend taking place in Cairo, or anywhere else in the Islamic world, for that matter. This is clearly what makes Turkey unique," the article begins.
"On the other hand there are similarities between Egypt and Turkey that cannot be overlooked. Both countries have elected Islamist governments. In both cases the governments in power are trying to impose their Islamic world views on secular sections of society. Of course the immediate argument that Islamists resort to in this case is that both governments are democratically elected, which is true," the author writes.
According to the author, developments in Egypt sound a warning for Turkey pointing to what we can expect if the government insists on disregarding 50 percent of the population that did not vote for it.
"Meanwhile it is also questionable the extent to which Erdoğan can rely on the 50 percent that did vote for him at this stage. He must realize that not everyone voted for him on the basis of his Islamist credentials. Many people voted for him for the sake of the economic and political stability he promised. The picture for him will obviously change if he becomes the source of economic and political instability. That is the nature of true democracy," he concludes.
