The daily battles in Istanbul between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security forces and a disparate crowd of genuine protesters and committed anarchists, are being poorly handled. Erdogan has been in power for more than a decade with few political or institutional checks on his authority. Since he won his third victory in 2011, he has rolled out a controversial series of laws introducing Islamist social ideas, which the secular protesters have endured, but have been driven to act by their unease over this and Erdogan’s authoritarian style, combined with the immediate trigger of the fate of Gezi Park. But any comparison with the Arab Spring is out of place as Erdogan remains Turkey’s most popular politician. He is no Hosni Mubarak as he has been elected three times by substantial majorities.
Nonetheless, Erdogan’s reaction has been a disaster, comparing today’s protests to the orchestrated instability preceding the military coups of 1960 and 1980. He is treating the protest as an existential challenge and has polarised the nation by the heavy-handedness of his security forces. Erdogan should stop trying to suppress this civil society movement, which is driven by young people and students, often backed by their families. He should seek to temper his political response to incorporate this new political force and work within a democratic structure. Erdogan has grown used to having his own way. Now he will have to learn to compromise.
