Skip to main content

From Tahrir to Taksim

The awakening of the silent majority in Istanbul might signal to Israelis that not all of the Turkish people support the policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
TuTurkish protesters holding a Turkish flag demonstrate on the main city square, Kizilay, in the Turkish capital Ankara on June 3, 2013. rkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday rejected talk of a "Turkish Spring", shrugging off mass protests against his government as medics reported the first death in days of violence. Rallies started there last week initially in protest at plans to redevelop the adjacent Gezi Park, a rare green spot in central Istanbul, and quickly spread, inflamed by anger at
Read in 

There’s an old Israeli saying: “A guest passing through sees every problem.” While I don’t know how accurate that expression is, I do know that I could foresee the recent riots in Turkey during my last visit there, just a few months ago. Even then I heard plenty of people — many, many people — who had no qualms about calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “dictator.” Those same people said that no effort should be spared to bring him down.

Statements like these made a deep impression on me because I was so surprised to hear them. Until just a few months ago, before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology and reconciliation with Erdogan, the average Israeli who followed TV news about Turkey or read about it in the newspaper lived under the impression that Turkey as a whole, or at least the bulk of Turkey, is becoming something like Iran. The overall feeling was that the country spoke with one voice, the resolute voice of Prime Minister Erdogan. Ever since his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, Israelis felt that Turkey was undergoing a dramatic policy shift. Local television stations substantiated this. It looked like Turkey was transforming from a tolerant, enlightened, Western nation; ''an island of sanity in the Middle East,'' into something very different and menacing; a country which was doing all it could to draw closer to the Arab League, Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.