“I gave myself poison,” the Turkish Nationalist Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli remarked in reaction to his resounding electoral defeat in the parliamentary elections that were held in the country just over 10 years ago. He had believed that he and his party would score a sweeping victory, but victory went instead to the currently ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Bahçeli, who had served as deputy prime minister in the coalition government of Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Bulent Ecevit from 1999 to 2002, was left with the bitter taste of remorse for having pressured Ecevit into implementing the reforms that had created rifts in the coalition and forced the early elections. Today, the scenario appears to be reversed, in spite of differences in the details. Bahçeli and his Party are now in the opposition, albeit with only 68 seats in parliament, and they have called for early parliamentary elections as a means of averting sectarian strife against the backdrop of the mass demonstrations that have swept the country over the past two weeks. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has meanwhile been holding firm. He does not want to fall into the same trap that Bahçeli courted for himself, and he holds that there is no justification for holding early elections. As a result, he is adamant that the elections will be held on their appointed dates: presidential and municipal elections in 2014 and parliamentary elections in 2015. Yet, in spite of his warning that “patience has its limits” Turkey's two-week-old political crisis does not appear to be nearing an end. As the demonstrators in Istanbul's Taksim Square reorganised last week, the AKP central committee met, after which Deputy Prime Minister Huseyin Celik held a press conference, the primary message of which was encapsulated in the motto on the poster behind him: “our aim is 2023.” The motto signals the ruling party's determination to remain in power up to and beyond the centennial of the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923. The more immediate message was that Erdogan will not capitulate and that he will press ahead with his policies on the basis of which, he says, millions of people voted for him. To drive home the extent of his popularity, the AKP has scheduled a series of mass rallies, the first two of which are to be held on 15 June in Ankara and 16 June in Istanbul. In a statement cited by the high-circulation Hurriyet newspaper on Sunday, an AKP official explained that the rallies were not intended as an exercise in muscle-flexing, but rather as proof to those who may have misinterpreted the current situation that “we have not surrendered.” “We will tell them that Turkey has a voice and that it will not allow the minority to dictate to the majority in the country,” he said. Erdogan himself has also remained defiant, and in a speech in the Mediterranean town of Mersin on Sunday he told thousands of supporters to “give the opponents of stability and growth in emergent Turkey a lesson in democracy in the municipal elections in March next year.” Erdogan's remarks may have been sarcastic, but so have the responses of critics of “Erdogan-style democracy” who have noted two phenomena with respect to the prime minister's counter-campaign. First, the pro-Erdogan demonstrations, large as they are, are remarkably free of agents provocateurs and do not require a permit in advance. Second, the prime minister has the backing of a media machine that fawns on him and broadcasts his every word while systematically marginalising the opposition. This happened on Sunday when the press gave a verbatim account of the prime minister's speech in Ankara even though it was a repetition of the message he had delivered in Marsin a few hours earlier. With ongoing protests across the country and little or no give from Erdogan and the ruling AKP, Turkey is caught in a standoff between two camps. On the one side are the AKP hardliners and their supporters, whose positions range from the existential “it's either them or us,” to the defiant “if the protesters can amass hundreds of thousands we can amass millions,” or the more subtle “the environmentalists have a point, but they have been infiltrated by saboteurs.” On the other side are the protesters carrying placards decrying “the fascist Erdogan” and “the traitor dictator” or featuring the prime minister's photograph on a cigarette package with a health warning below it. The war of words raging throughout Anatolia is reminiscent of the polarised climates that Turkish society experienced in the past, even if the present generations are too young to remember them. Some observers worry that if the current entrenched positions persist, they could usher in violence similar to the stormy political strife of the 1970s which culminated in a military coup d'état that unleashed radical Islamist trends and suspended democracy. Over the past week, moderate voices from both camps have appealed for flexibility and the search for realistic solutions. An encouraging sign came in the form of an initiative by the Society of Solidarity with Taksim Square, when representatives of this organisation met with former speaker of parliament and current Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc who issued an apology to protesters who had been unjustly harmed and promised to consider their demands. Foremost among these is a demand to halt the Gezi Park project that originally sparked the protests and to bring to account those responsible for the use of excessive violence against the protesters. Later on and in his first major concession since the deadly unrest began, Erdogan agreed on Monday to meet with the leaders of the protesters. Mass anti-government demonstrations have rocked the country and many blame Erdogan's intransigence. The Turkish prime minister's surprise olive branch came as thousands again took to the streets of Istanbul and the capital Ankara, defying Erdogan's threat that they would “pay a price” for the unrelenting unrest. However, Erdogan has offered little to encourage hopes of compromise, instead issuing vague statements to the effect that he was open to democratic demands and that his government supported freedom of expression. These were then contradicted by his declaration that the plans for Gezi Park were not open for discussion. This stance may appear provocative, yet Erdogan seems confident, perhaps justifiably so given the widespread popular support he enjoys in the Anatolian heartland. But there is a possibility that the protesters' continued rallies and demonstrations could begin to erode this and also draw support from the many people who have thus far been sitting on the fence. The recent announcement by Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is also likely to have an impact. Ocalan's declaration of support for the protests, which he referred to as “resistance” movements, may encourage Kurds and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party to join the demonstrators in Taksim Square.
