Erdogan getting rid of Ataturk legacy?

PanARMENIAN.Net - But lately they have become extremely strained. In Turkey the CHP is associated with Ataturk, who founded the party, and receives a fit treatment. It should be noted that the declared loyalty to the founder of the republic and his portraits wherever possible in no way reflect the true attitude of the AKP to Mustafa Kemal. Intolerant and too ambitious, to say the least, Prime Minister Erdogan feels envois of anyone who can ever push him into the background. In this case the “anyone” is Ataturk and the party he established. There is a serious struggle going on against Atatürk and his legacy, with the Turkish Armed Forces having removed from its website the webpage on Ataturk. Ministry of Education has cancelled the celebration in schools and stadiums on May 19 - Memorial Day of Mustafa Kemal.

Against this background, a notice to appear in court sent to CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu looked quite natural and predictable. As a deputy, Kilicdaroglu enjoys immunity, but he appealed to Parliament, asking to deprive him of this privilege. So did also all the 132 deputies from CHP. The Prosecutor's Office of Turkey brought an action against Kilicdaroglu for insulting the court. In an interview to the Italian newspaper Limes, he had stated that Turkey is a country with constrained press and a legal system that violates human rights.

Some indirect evidence suggests that the organization “Ergenekon”, as well as the plan “Sledgehammer” designed to overthrow the ruling party were invented by Islamists to do away with the legacy of Ataturk once and for all. Erdogan has learned the lessons of his country and knows quite well how ends the career of a prime minister, who opposes the military. Military coups are traditional for Turkey and who knows to what end the current premier’s career will come. It may well be that the military finally lose patience and overthrow Erdogan on the background of foreign policy failures. The failure to treat the Kurds with skill, the inability to find common ground with political opponents and much more count against Erdogan’s ruling the country. The Kurds are a special matter; no one may ever be able to cope with them and, what is more, one day they may destroy Turkey.

Until recently, no political decision was made without the authorization and approval of the Turkish General Staff, and no one could imagine that the situation might change and the Islamists, who, by the way, drove Turkey into the current disadvantageous situation, would themselves make decisions. Failure after failure affects the foreign policy of Turkey and all attempts of the Turkish Foreign Ministry directed to consolidate the rather numerous Turkish Diaspora to “combat” recognition of the Armenian Genocide comes to naught. The “Caucasian platform of peace and stability”, which Turkey was so eagerly pushing forward during the 2008 war in Georgia, failed too. The issue of EU membership is no longer discussed, despite the occasional loud proclamations of Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis and Prime Minister Erdogan in the media. That said, who needs a Europe in the eastern provinces of the country, predominantly populated by Kurds?

Now a serious concern for the Islamists is to be able to, in no time, return Turkey to the Ottoman times and to Sharia, which, by the way, is now effective in upcountry. Erdogan involuntarily proved that no European values instilled by Ataturk with such great difficulty took roots in Turkey. Logically, next step of the AKP should be to reduce to a minimum the number of Ataturk portraits in public places. If it manages, of course...