A distinctive trait that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has displayed over the years is the ease with which he switches between diametrically opposed positions on the same issue. When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was created in 2001, he disavowed his Islamist roots only to later declare with pride that he had never changed. In another instance, democracy for him was at first “a means,” but then it became “an end.” Such contradictions were initially seen as part of his “political style,” but during his 13 years in power, the AKP has had such startling changes of heart that many now wonder whether Turkish society is plagued by some sort of collective amnesia on which Erdogan and his party prey.
The most striking examples of this tendency emerged during the mass, anti-government protests over Gezi Park in summer 2013. In a bid to discredit and vilify the protesters, Erdogan, then prime minister, and the pro-government media made two inflammatory claims that they repeated for months. First, they said the protesters had desecrated an ancient mosque by boozing and kissing inside the building. According to the second claim, at Istanbul’s Kabatas pier, dozens of male protesters, half-naked and wearing leather gloves, assaulted a young mother with her baby because she was wearing an Islamic headscarf and then urinated on her. The claims included assertions that video of both incidents would be released “soon.” Three years on, the public is still waiting for the video evidence. Meanwhile, security camera footage from Kabatas revealed that the alleged victim was never attacked. Neither Erdogan nor the pro-government media has felt the need to correct themselves or apologize.
