This is truely a season of wonders in Turkey, given the extraordinarily contradictory and self-serving narratives now being put out by the country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The repercussions of the on-going graft scandal continue to reverberate through the country as new revelations find their way onto the Internet and social-networking sites. Many of these revelations come in the form of recorded telephone conversations that belie claims made by Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, notably concerning two villas in the Urla district of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir allegedly acquired illicitly by Erdogan's wife and daughter Emine and Sümeyye Erdogan. At the same time, the Turkish public has been amazed at a wave of major construction projects completed or in progress in the country. Some of these have raised questions and suspicions. Ten or more years ago, work began on an extension to the Ankara metro system to link it with the suburbs of the capital. At the time, there were repeated assurances that the project would be completed in four years, but a lack of finance kept delaying the completion date. Suddenly, a few weeks ago work picked up at breakneck speed and last week the new line, built by a Spanish-Turkish consortium, was inaugurated in a widely publicised ceremony attended by Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The reason behind the sudden construction push and the fanfare surrounding the metro's completion is obvious: Ankara Governor Melih Gökçek faces stiff competition from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate in the forthcoming municipal elections. An equally fierce mayoral contest is in progress in Istanbul, where the completion of a similar mega-project has received major coverage. The ruling AKP is desperate to win the municipal elections in these two cities, as it knows that an opposition victory would mark the beginning of the end of the party and its control over government. The AKP has been watching its popularity ratings dwindle as a result of the graft probes scandal that broke on 17 December that implicated several key AKP figures and businessmen, some close to Erdogan. With crucial municipal elections a few weeks away at the end of March, the timing of the scandal could not have been worse and the deeply shaken ruling party needed some lifelines. Instructions were issued to the Anatolian municipalities, most of them under ruling party control, to allocate the necessary funds to hasten the completion of the stalled infrastructure projects. A few weeks ago, the new metro line running beneath the Sea of Marmara to connect the European and Asian sides of Istanbul was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by the Japanese Prime Minister. However, the widely publicised footage of the occasion was misleading, as it featured only the completed portions of the line, and it has yet to be officially opened to the public. Turkish television is an obedient partner in this PR work. Having become virtually an arm of the executive, it broadcasts every word and action of the prime minister and the members of his clique. Even though the municipal elections campaign season has not been officially opened, Erdogan has been seen on television touring towns and cities in the provinces, working up AKP supporters into frenzied cheers. On the TV screens, these audiences seem to number in the thousands, all waving AKP banners and Turkish flags. Judging from Turkish state TV, the opposition has evaporated, and the few images that do appear seem to be chiefly meant to serve as reminders that Turkey is a country still blessed with democracy. Yet, as beleaguered as the opposition may appear, comments and reactions from it do still sometimes surface and frequently carry a sarcastic sting. Some opposition figures have referred to the widely hailed infrastructure projects as a form of electoral bribery. How else can their accelerated construction be explained, they ask, along with the media hullabaloo. More ominously, even as the government continues to boast of its great achievements, economic above all, the economic indicators have begun to tell another story: a mounting budget deficit, declining reserves, a 16 per cent shrinkage in exports to neighbouring countries, and a cut to negative from stable in the country's credit rating by one of three main international credit-rating agencies. Meanwhile, the once seemingly unshakable ruling party also appears to be crumbling from within. Last week brought another wave of defections, with 150 members of the AKP from the southern city of Iskenderun tendering their resignations on 14 February. The action was taken in protest against the policies of the party's leader, “who has begun to head in a wrong direction, the consequences of which only God knows,” as one former AKP member from Iskenderun put it. This is not the only indication of the dwindling credibility of the AKP. As the Turkish media broadcast a conference in which Erdogan rhapsodised about the “unprecedented level” of freedom enjoyed by all segments of Turkish society, a court in the western town of Eski Şahir handed one-to-two year prison sentences to four defendants found guilty of “insulting Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan”. The defendants had uttered the allegedly offensive remarks when they participated in demonstrations held in Eski Şahir to express solidarity with the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul last May. Their lawyers argued that the remarks were not unusual and could be heard everywhere and could not be construed as slander. The court responded by reducing the men's sentences from 31 years in prison to one and two years. This ruling has been taken as further evidence of the growing repressive and dictatorial nature of the government. Nor has a widely televised scene of a brawl in the Turkish Parliament contributed to painting a rosy picture of Turkish democracy. On Saturday, a shouting match quickly turned to fisticuffs, by the end of which ambulances had to be called in order to take two MPs to hospital, one a CHP representative with a broken nose, the other an AKP representative with a broken finger. The government had reintroduced a controversial bill aimed at restructuring the country's Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), Turkey's key judicial body that is responsible for the appointments and promotions of judges and prosecutors. Critics have charged that the law, which will give the minister of justice control over judicial appointments, effectively turns the judiciary into an arm of the executive. In a broader context, the bill is seen as another link in Erdogan's drive to assert his control over all the branches of government. The head of the HSYK has cautioned that the bill is unconstitutional and will deliver a lethal blow to judicial autonomy. A number of other legal professionals have lamented the fact that the country seems to be taking major steps backwards in terms of democratic freedoms, warning that this will jeopardise Turkey's prospects for accession to the EU. To make matters worse, the parliament recently approved another highly controversial bill. The so-called Internet Bill, which contains arrangements that will make it possible for the Turkish Telecommunications Directorate to block Websites without a court order, has been harshly criticised in Turkey and abroad as a dangerous encroachment on democratic freedoms, notably the freedom of expression. All eyes are now turned to the presidential palace, since both the Internet and the HSYK law have to be ratified by President Abdullah Gül. Opposition parties and rights groups are hoping that the latter will not sign the laws and will instead refer them back to parliament. In the event that he does sign them into law, the opposition has already made it clear that it will challenge the laws before the Supreme Constitutional Court.
