Recent comments by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have about the lack of separated university dormitories for male and female students in the city of Denizli caused outcry on social media. The Turkish daily Zaman ran a report on November 4th about a close meeting of the deputies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in which Erdogan denounced the fact that the lack of dormitories is causing male and female students to live at the same house. "We witnessed this in the province of Denizli. The insufficiency of dormitories causes problems. Male and female university students are staying in the same house. This is not being checked," Erdoğan was quoted as saying during the closed-doors meeting. "This is against our conservative, democratic character," he added. According to the report, Erdogan added that he had given "instructions" to the governor of the city of Denizli, in southeast of Turkey, to "control" the issue. Erdogan did not seem to give any more details about what the instructions entailed. Erdogan's comments created a wave of disapproval by Turkish twitter users who claimed that the prime minister is interfering with people's private lives. They also argued that such comments are any evidence of the prime minister's wish to impose his personal opinions on the society and undermine people's freedom. Has Avarat, a writer and a photographer based in Ankara, tweeted that Erdogan's comments were not about dormitories, but in fact were about "controlling private flats where male and female students might live" as a reason for lack of university housing. Erdogan remarks have prompted the main opposition party Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy to address a question to Erdogan. "Isn't the inspection you mention against the European Convention on Human Rights? Isn't this an act of imposing upon people a certain lifestyle?" CHP Deputy Chairman Umut Oran asked during parliamentary session on November 4. Responding to Oran's question, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınç, denied the allegations that Prime Minister Erdogan ordered inspections into private flats. He also noted that there are more than 3 million university students that lack enough dormitories. He added that the prime minister's orders to Denizli's governor were about increasing the number of student dormitories with no orders of any inspections. According to the report, Erdogan only mentioned the city of Denizli when talking about the problem and didn't make it a nation-wide issue. One could argue that the prime minister wanted to point out the lack of options presented by the university which in result leaves the students with no other option than making a cost effective choice of living in private houses. The fact remains that it is the government's responsibility to provide such options to students, which seems to be what Erdogan was going for, yet government should refrain at all times from interfering in adult's choices. However, Erdogan seems to have missed the point in which a democratic government, conservative or liberal, stays away from interfering in people's choices, private lives and lifestyles. Yet, in what signals a rift within the AKP, Erdogan confirmed on Monday November 5 that his government was in fact looking into the private homes in which male and female students live. "Nobody knows what takes places in those houses [where male and female students live together]; very intricate things, anything can happen." Erdogan said during parliamentary meeting of his party. "Then, parents cry out, saying, ‘where is the state?' These steps are being taken in order to show that the state is there. As a conservative, democratic government, we need to intervene." He added. In what seemed as an failed damage control move, deputy prime minister Arinc reiterated Erdogan's Monday remarks. He said on Wednesday that his party's concern is that some families may not approve of their daughters engaging in a nonmarital relationships added that such relationships are against "Turkish family values". Arinc even went as far as arguing that those houses might be harboring "criminal organizations". He also indicated that municipalities and governors have been instructed to take measures on these issues regarding students' houses without elaborating on any details. Arnic's Wednesday remarks seem to contradict with his earlier comments on Monday in which he said dismissed that Erdogan was referring to private houses or prying into people's private lives. Accordin to Today's Zaman, Arnic avoided talking about his inconsistent comments, stating only that he his political style is different than that of the Prime Minister's. This is not the first time in which Erdogan and his party have been accused of trying to impose his personal conservative opinions on people. Back in August, Erdogan promised to build separate swimming pools for men and women in the city of Rize in order to "prevent the youth at the city from acquiring bad habits". In February 2012, Erdogan's remarks during a parliamentary meeting, where he said "we want to raise a religious young generation" in Turkey, sparked heated debate in Turkey with opposition parties accusing him of polarizing the country with such comments. Others accused the prime minister of having an agenda to make Turkey a religious nation rather than a secular one in attempt to undermine the founder of the republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Moreover, a recent bill that the Turkish parliament passed by in April regulating the sale and advertising of alcohol was also a case in which Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted AKP were accused of pushing for more conservative lifestyle in the Turkish society. Thus, Critics have increasingly been questioning Erdogan's commitment to his own words of not interfering in people's private lives. In numerous speeches following the anti-government protests in June, Erdogan reiterated repeatedly that those accusations against him of interfering in people lifestyles were empty and baseless. "[I]t [the government] is increasingly giving the impression that it has become a basic occupation to exert full control over people's private lives." Bulent Kenes wrote in his column for Today's Zaman paper on November 5 titled "Unaudited public vs. audited private life". "Whether this is really what they intend to do is dubious, but this is the very perception they have created." Kenes added. However, one observer asked whether the recent rhetoric by Erdogan is meant as to shift public debate, implying that he had used such mechanism before. "PM Erdogan says he ordered mayor of a city to take necessary steps to regulate houses female/male university students share; Another case of usual trick in signaling to a controversial legislation that leads to nowhere but to shift public debate" Ziya Meral, a London based Turkish writer, researcher and academic, tweeted on November 4 following the news report on Erdogan's comment. "Or is PM really set to undermine his legacy as his time in office coming to an end?" Meral asked in another tweet. Other observers have voiced a similar worrying tone that fears that the defiance of Erdogan and his controversial and illiberal rhetoric is endangering his legacy and his party's 10 years of remarkable record on economical and political reform. In his latest opinion piece for the New York Times on November 2 titled "Is Erdogan a Democrat", Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish author and journalist, argued that Turkey was, in comparison to the current political climate, "in fact much less free in almost all respects" in the pre-Erdogan era. Nevertheless, Akyol recognized that Turkey is not functioning as a liberal democracy just yet due to the illiberal tendencies manifested in the lack of press freedom and the heavy-handed crackdown on dissent. Akyol concluded that in order to make Turkey a functioning liberal democracy, "Mr. Erdogan and his allies must accept that they can't advance democracy merely by taking pride in correcting the misdeeds of their predecessors. They also have to look hard at their decade-old rule, recognize their mistakes and then correct them."
