Page 2 - bne Newspaper 170317

Top Stories
March 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Turkish president risks economy, EU ties in pitch for nationalist vote
to 600, and making big changes in the supreme board of judges and prosecutors.
Erdogan and his ruling Justice & Development Party (AKP) argue that once the executive presi- dency is established, Turkey will never go back to those bad old days of weak coalition governments and feeble economic growth. The executive presi- dency will bring more stability, a stronger econo- my and more foreign investment, they say.
However, critics claim such a change will result
in “one-man rule” of an increasingly authoritar- ian, Islamist president without any proper checks and balances, granting him autocratic powers that have been condemned as excessive by a Council of Europe inquiry.
With the polls signalling a close contest – with about 40% in favour of the changes, 40% against and the remaining 20% undecided – the votes of the large Turkish diaspora are key for Erdogan, who is staking so much on the result of the vote.
Even though campaigning abroad is illegal under Turkey’s own laws, Erdogan and the AKP have tried to hold rallies in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands to get ethnic Turks living there to vote ‘Yes’ in the referendum. But Europe, already on edge over elections in which immigration, par- ticularly Muslim immigration, is a big topic, asked Turkey to refrain from making any such moves. Turkey had appeared to acquiesce, but then sens- ing a good opportunity to whip up the nationalist vote at home, then dispatched Turkey’s foreign minister to Rotterdam, where his plane was pre- vented from landing, and the family minister, who was stopped at the Dutch border.
This incensed Erdogan, who in vitriolic remarks
accused the European countries of exhibiting Nazism and Islamophobia, while also seeming to accuse the Dutch of being to blame for the mas- sacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serb forces at Sre- brenica.
Inevitably, the Turkish government has also threatened to use its key piece of leverage against Europe, namely the migrant deal signed in March 2016 which aimed to stem the flow of migrants and refugees into Europe in return
for fast-track EU membership talks, eased visa rules for Turkish citizens and some €6bn in fi- nancial aid until 2018.
“The time has come for Turkey to reassess its migration deal with the European Union, as it has become clear the bloc would not take a fair stance on its promise to grant Turks visa-free travel,” Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik told Reu- ters in an interview on March 14.
Reuters also reported on March 15 that Turkey had blocked some military training and other work planned with Nato partner countries. Sourc- es told the news agency that Ankara has also blocked Nato’s 2017 rolling programme of coop- eration with non-EU countries, including political events, civilian projects and military training.
To many in Europe all this seems like a bad joke, coming from a country that actually committed genocide with the Armenian massacres, while also presiding over a breakdown in human rights that have seen more than 40,000 people, including judges, prosecutors, Kurdish politicians and over 100 journalists, jailed since a failed coup attempt last July, while many others have had their com- panies and assets seized by the state and sold off to AKP cronies.
However, the incredible accusations by Erdogan were not designed for a European audience, but for a domestic one and the Turkish diaspora, as the president’s priorities right now are entirely do- mestic and short term. Yet the longer-term dam- age may be significant and harder to repair.