One-Man State: Presidential Election Set to Seal Erdogan's Supremacy

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/erdogan-set-to-cement-power-by-winning-presidential-election-a-984581.html



Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan began his political career as a democratic reformer. But those days are long gone. His battles against the country's old elite and the demonstrators of Gezi Park revealed his despotic tendencies. Now, he wants to become president.

One-Man State: Presidential Election Set to Seal Erdogan's Supremacy
By Hasnain Kazim and Maximilian Popp
August 06, 2014 – 03:28 PM

Snipers are in position on the roofs while helicopters circle above the square, where a crowd of people are waving flags depicting a crescent moon. Thousands have come from Istanbul, Ankara and the Black Sea to the small city of Yozgat in Central Anatolia. They have waited for hours in the heat to cheer for their leader. They chant his name as his campaign's theme song booms from the loudspeakers: "Man of the People, Recep Tayyip Erdogan."

When the Turkish prime minister walks onto the stage, women in headscarves break out in tears and bearded men fall to their knees. Erdogan raises his hands and shouts: "Are we brothers and sisters? Are we Turks?" The crowd responds: "Tayyip, we will go to our deaths for you!" It's campaign season in Turkey, but that barely explains the frenzy. Erdogan has described his campaign as a war of liberation. His voters, the ones he hopes will make him president, are his troops.

"War of liberation" was the term with which Mustafa Kemal, known as Atatürk, referred to the campaign against the Western allies that led to the establishment of the Turkish republic. His election campaign has seen Erdogan travel to the places where that war began. And like a modern-day Atatürk, he bellows into his microphone: "We will not allow outside forces to harm Turkey!" He is referring to the students who occupied Gezi Park in Istanbul, the secular opposition and Europe.

Erdogan, 60, has been in power for 11 years, and because he can no longer serve as prime minister after three terms in office, he is now seeking election as president on Aug. 10. Ideally, he would of course like to become ruler for life, or at least until 2023, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. He often mentions 2023, and the number is also featured prominently on his campaign posters.