Inside, Outside, Upside Down

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

INSIDE, Turkey is a mess. Corruption is, though I suspect un(der)reported, once again fully present. Ended is the honeymoon of this century’s first decade when Turkish citizens thought they had brought to power a political party, Erdogan’s AKP, that was free of the corruption tainting the country’s political elites. All the leaks about the fishy doings of ErdoÄŸan’s family and inner circle can only be the tip of the iceberg we hear about outside the country: think about the cabinet members who had to resign a few years ago, or the Italian connection from a little over a year ago, or the biggie ”“ Daesh/ISIS oil smuggled from Iraq and Syria through Turkey (though this particular item straddles the INSIDE/OUTSIDE LINE). But perhaps the most impishly fun one is Sevan Nisanyan’s escape from unjust imprisonment thanks to Turkey’s long established (dating back to Ottoman times) traditions of being able to bribe your way out of jail.

Whenever governments start scapegoating sectors of their polity, you can be certain that rot has set INSIDE the country. Gulen and his supporters are the biggest scapegoat for ErdoÄŸan and his coterie. By using their alleged responsibility for last summer’s coup attempt, ErdoÄŸan has tried to further consolidate his power by firing tens of thousands of public employees. Of course another scapegoat is provided by the country’s minorities. Armenians have long been the longest-horned devils for Turkey. But being numerically insignificant, that minority is not as practical. Meanwhile the Kurds are. It seems reigniting a civil war with the PKK was worthwhile for Sultan, er, excuse me, President ErdoÄŸan. This way he could have yet another scapegoat/excuse to grab more power. But, that has led to incidents such as the one from a few days ago where three Turkish soldiers are ambushed and killed, the video for which was released by the Kurds. How embarrassing is that?

But the scapegoating isn’t all that is being justified by the coup. The crackdown and accompanying de-democratization INSIDE Turkey are of immense proportions. Any semblance of independent media is almost gone, even online sources such as YouTube, etc. have been subject to periodic blackouts at Ankara’s behest. In just the last few weeks we’ve witnessed the arrest of ten human rights activists, including Peter Steudtner, a German who was in Turkey for a digital security conference. And here’s a dead give-away as to the ridiculous state of fear and harassment being created in Turkey. ErdoÄŸan, while attending last month’s G20 summit in Hamburg, claimed that conference had “the character of a continuation” of last year’s coup! This is designed to create hysteria and distraction among Turkey’s citizens so they won’t see how bad their current government has become.

All this provides excellent cover for the state’s ongoing property grabs. Just two weeks ago I wrote about the 50 Syriac properties usurped. For the past two years, various Kurdish dominated municipalities have lost control of their own governance and land. Even some Armenian churches have been subjected to re-expropriation, landing those matters in Turkey’s courts.

But the best clue to the decay besetting Turkey and its ruling AKP is the shedding of leadership within the party. Abdullah Gul and Ahmet Davutoglu, respectively former president and prime minister, are nowhere to be seen. In his quest for ultimate power and control, ErdoÄŸan is sidelining some of the most competent people in the party. As the circle of leadership shrinks and leaves fewer independent poles of power with which he must contend, ErdoÄŸan will become ever more paranoid, tyrannical, and possibly unhinged in his actions. This bodes ill for Turkey, its citizens, and neighboring countries.

Which, transitions us to the INSIDE/OUTSIDE cusp. The oil smuggling and German’s arrest have already been mentioned. But there’s also Turkey’s questionable base just inside Iraq, supposedly used to fight Daesh/ISI, but really, a form of leverage against the Kurds. More recently, the movement into Syria of Turkish troops (stationed between the two zones controlled by Kurds) and the attacks by those forces along with Turkey’s puppet “Syrian rebels”