Turkey's lack of democracy is storing up problems

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan

IGezi Park may have abated after judges conveniently stopped building work there; but the fundamental reasons for protest haven't gone away – just as tourists, alarmed by demonstrations spreading far beyond Istanbul, haven't come back. And the crisis of Turkish journalism – too many reporters in prison, far too many sacked for telling their readers what happened in Taksim Square – grows worse, not better, in a climate of fear where even the most distinguished professionals, such as Yavuz Baydar, ombudsman of the daily Sabah, or Derya Sazak, editor of Milliyet, can suddenly find themselves out of a job.
t is proving a long, turbulent summer for Turkish democracy. The chaos of

Europe may have tactfully delayed negotiations on the next chapter of Turkey's entrance drive until much later in the autumn. It cannot, though, hide the rot of respect that now dogs Ankara's hopes of EU admission, nor the widespread disillusion with Prime Minister Erdogan's unflinching rhetoric.

Turkey can do better than this; indeed, Turkey was doing much better until Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to tackle the demonstrators head on. Worse, the tainting of TV and press leaves his AKP government without the credibility it needs to argue its case.

Media baronies are short of trust right round the world; even MPs and ministers in Britain's post-Leveson months lay claim to a higher reputation.

Yet in Turkey, normality is stood on its head. The entrepreneurs and conglomerates who own newspapers and television stations don't pretend to wield independent power. To the contrary, they wriggle quietly under Erdogan's thumb. They own other businesses, too; they need government blessing for development plans, tax treatments, sales permits and the rest. So they know when to keep their heads down – and when to keep their editors in line.

There's no heavy boot of repression here, more a secondary twist from some hidden stiletto. Democracy appears in working order as visitors to the country turn on a television or pick up a paper, but down below trust is gone – and that is a potentially lethal problem.

Mr Erdogan's government has mountainous difficulties of its own: Syrian refugees and instability pouring over its borders; faltering efforts to solve the Kurdish (and terrorist) problem; an economy slowing; a country chronically uncertain whether to find a secular or Islamic future.

In many ways, the AKP and its leader, now elected three times, have much to boast about. Erdogan's Islamic vision has often seemed mild and non-ideological, exactly the blend of hope and pragmatic that Europe and the Middle East need.

But that vision is fading fast as his country creaks at frail seams and the prime minister relies on his electoral mandate (58% last time round) to insist that everything must be done his way.

Functioning democracy depends on far more than ballots in a box. It needs a respect for the rule of law and for a free flow of information. Locking up journalists by the score does not foster that respect.
Seeing 30 brave writers and columnists thrown out of work after Taksim breeds only cynicism. This isn't what Europe means by democracy; and it is not what Turkey should mean by it either.

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