In mining tragedy, Erdogan doesn't learn from past mistakes

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government’s reaction to criticisms in the wake of the Soma mine disaster has shown that he has not learned anything from the disastrous attempt at crisis management during the Gezi Park protests of a year ago. Again, the government’s response appears to be harsh, slow, unsympathetic, detached and prone to disastrous mistakes.

More importantly, the government once again approached the issue in a polarizing "us versus them" way. Elements of the press it controls have correspondingly unleashed a full-fledged attack on government critics, demonstrators and victims of the tragedy.

Tragedies of the scale of Soma, where some 300 miners died, are moments of grief and national unity. This is the single largest industrial work accident in Turkey’s history. It presented an opportunity for a leader to focus on what unites a country’s citizens; it is a moment for good oratory that mourns the victims and lifts the spirits of the nation.

Yet, Erdogan did not rise up to the occasion. A reluctant visitor at the scene of a disaster and surrounded by hundreds of security personnel, he immediately assumed a defensive posture. In a public relations disaster of sorts, he tried to dismiss critics by pointing out that in 1862 and 1907, Britain and the United States had respectively suffered from similar disasters. (As one Twitter critic put it, finally Turkey has reached the standards of 1907 America.) Such rhetoric had the opposite effect; instead of calming the situation it enraged his critics. The pro-Erdogan press not only parroted his message but also came up with lists of other accidents, as if this would somehow justify the Soma calamity. Lost in all this was the mere fact that all people wanted to see a prime minister who would wipe the victims’ tears as he shed some of his own. Feel their pain, as President Bill Clinton would have said.