Turkey's New Violent Political Culture

by Burak Bekdil • June 11, 2019 at 5:00 am

At the heart of the matter is a culture that programs most less-educated masses (and in Turkey average schooling is 6.5 years) into a) converting the "other" and, if that is not possible, b) physically hurting the "other." A deep societal polarization since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002 has widened to frightening levels.
After opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was taken to a safehouse, members of the mob surrounded it and chanted, "Let's burn down the house!"
Apparently each unpunished case of political violence committed on behalf of the dominant state ideology (Islamism) and its sacrosanct leader (Erdoğan) encourages the next. In May, a journalist critical of Erdoğan's government and its nationalist allies was hospitalized after being attacked outside his home.

In a most spectacular show of violence, fans of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in April nearly lynched Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Pictured: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. (Photo by Erhan Ortac/Getty Images)

In most civilized countries, citizens go to the ballot box on election day -- be it parliamentary, presidential or municipal -- cast their votes, go home to watch news reporting the results and go to work the next day, some happy, some disappointed, to live in peace until the elections. Not in Turkey, where any political race looks more like warfare than simple democratic competition.

One reason is the dominance of identity politics in the country that has its roots deep in the 1950s, when Turkey evolved into multi-party politics. The fighting between "us" and "them" goes on since then. At the heart of the matter is a culture that programs most less-educated masses (and in Turkey average schooling is 6.5 years) into a) converting the "other" and, if that is not possible, b) physically hurting the "other." A deep societal polarization since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002 has widened to frightening levels.

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Greece: Is the Left-Wing Government Interfering in the Electoral Process?

by Maria Polizoidou • June 11, 2019 at 4:00 am

The most damning testimony of electoral fraud, however, came from Dimitris Mavros, managing director of the MRB polling company. In a radio interview on June 2, Mavros said that he had been under extreme pressure from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to manipulate the polls published by his firm....
On May 18, LA.O.S. Nationalist party leader Giorgos Karatzaferis also protested the government's ostensible interference in the elections. Karatzaferis said that the vote could be slanted leftward by the swift granting of Greek citizenship to thousands of immigrants.
The crucial question now surrounds the extent to which Greek voters heading to the polls on July 7 to elect their next government can trust that their ballots will be counted -- and reported -- fairly.

(Image source: iStock)

The local elections held in Greece on May 26 cast doubt on the integrity of the powers-that-be in Athens, and raise questions about how fair the upcoming national elections, scheduled for July 7, will be.

During the lead-up to the local elections, suspicion had been rampant that the left-wing Syriza-led government was going to try to manipulate the outcome.

As Lefteris Avgenakis -- secretary of the opposition New Democracy party -- told SKAI TV on May 16:

"There is the fear and the feeling... [and] information that some [members of] Syriza are determined... to distort the election results... We are telling [the Greek public] that New Democracy will be there with electoral representatives to ensure that their votes will be those counted at the ballot box."

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