Turkish opposition leader sees protests as 'turning point'
By Ayla Jean Yackley and Asli Kandemir :
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's handling of Turkey's fiercest anti-government protests in more than 30 years has exposed the extent of his authoritarianism and only entrenched hostility to his rule, the head of the main opposition party said.
The protests mark a "turning point" for Turkey and show the ruling AK Party is out of touch with a new "democratic generation" that makes up the bulk of the activists, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), said in an interview with Reuters at the weekend.
An effort to block government plans to develop Gezi Park, a small green space in central Istanbul, began peacefully three weeks ago but flared into running street battles. Riot police at the weekend used water cannon and tear gas to clear the park, where thousands had camped out.
"The intervention is a reflection on the street of the authoritarian state structure created by the AKP," said Kilicdaroglu, 64, a bespectacled former accountant whom the Turkish press once nicknamed Gandhi for his passing resemblance.
"The use of excessive force has created resentment in society ... (and) shows the demands for democracy and freedom are legitimate. If Erdogan continues with this conduct, the call for greater freedoms will grow."
The evacuation of Gezi Park was followed by a ruling party rally attended by hundreds of thousands of Erdogan's supporters, a show of strength seen as a response to weeks of street protests by his opponents.
"The underlying reason for disproportionate force to disperse Gezi Park ahead of his meeting in Istanbul was to show power," Kilicdaroglu said. "This is the mindset of a dictator."
Erdogan has rejected accusations of authoritarianism, saying he met protesters and offered to hold a referendum on the park's future as a compromise. He has said the environmental protest has been manipulated by "terrorists".
Erdogan also accused the CHP of stoking the confrontation at Gezi to achieve what it has failed to do at the ballot box. The centre-left CHP has been largely sidelined from government since the 1970s and now has just 134 seats in the 550-seat parliament.
Four people have died and more than 5,000 have been wounded, according to Turkey's Medical Association, in protests that have spread to cities including the capital Ankara and have rocked financial markets in this EU candidate nation.
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Erdogan has made many democratic reforms, taming a military that toppled four governments in four decades, starting entry negotiations with the European Union, and forging peace talks with Kurdish rebels to end a three-decade war.
Per capita income has tripled in nominal terms and business boomed. But critics say his style, always forceful and emotional, has become authoritarian. He takes the current unrest as a personal affront.
Such large-scale protests in western Turkey have been rare since a brutal military coup in 1980 ended years of political strife that killed thousands.
Now protests threaten to pit secular, Western-oriented Turks against Erdogan's more religious, conservative supporters.
What began as an effort to save one of the few public parks left in the centre of Europe's fastest-growing city mushroomed into a rebuke to Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for a decade and remains its most popular figure.
Only 15 percent in a survey of 4,411 Gezi protesters by pollster Konda said they had joined the movement to protect the park's trees. Almost two-thirds of respondents said they were seeking greater protection of rights and freedoms.
The average protester's age is 28, Konda said. Another poll found most voting-age participants backed CHP.
Kilicdaroglu said many are angry about the lack of independent media and the jailing of thousands of politicians, lawyers, Kurds, students and army officers under Erdogan, as well as his perceived interference in people's personal lives, such as curbs on the sale of alcohol.
Kilicdaroglu described Erdogan's plan to raze Gezi to build a replica of an Ottoman-era military barracks as "the last straw".
"These protests are a turning point for Turkey, it will never be the same," Kilicdaroglu said. "We must bring Western-style, first-rate democracy to Turkey ... The AKP is a classic Middle Eastern party that isn't focused on contemporary values."
A member of the Socialist International, the CHP was founded as a political party with the birth of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and enjoyed single-party rule until 1946. It considers itself the torchbearer of Muslim Turkey's secular order and paints the AK Party as its religious adversary.
Erdogan denies any such Islamist agenda.
Kilicdaroglu also questioned why Erdogan, as prime minister, has involved himself in city-planning issues like developing a park and said he opposed holding a referendum.
Reuters
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