Turkey: fire and flame for Erdoğan’s election campaign – politics

The entrance gate of the Swedish Consulate General on the Istanbul shopping street İstiklal looks as if the Bavarian fairytale king Ludwig II put it there: white with high battlements. The fairy-like fits, after all Sweden was always a promise in times when the Turks their own country was hell. After numerous military coups, it offered refuge. This story has not been forgotten, and almost every day people are still queuing in front of the consulate hoping for a visa. It doesn’t usually make headlines.

The demonstrators, members of a right-wing Anatolian youth association, were quite different. They waved green flags with verses from the Koran in front of the closed white portal on Sunday and held up a poster-sized photo of the Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan to the cameras. The face of the provocateur Paludan was marked with a red X. The protesters then burned the picture, just as Paludan had previously burned a copy of the Koran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

A splendid propaganda gift for Erdoğan

In Stockholm, there were mainly police officers, journalists and a few walkers, about 200 people. On the İstiklal, where there are always many people, there were not many more. Police officers were raised to protect the consulate. The demonstrators chanted slogans like: “Islamic Union, not the EU.”

Consulate officials hung a note in a window that read: “We don’t share the opinion of that idiot who burned the book.”

Huge posters on the facades of the Turkish capital Ankara advertise President Reccep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election

(Photo: imago)

In the flames in Stockholm and Istanbul, however, Sweden’s last hopes for early NATO membership are likely to have been lost. For Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this looks like a magnificent propaganda gift in the current presidential election campaign, especially since, according to polls, he cannot be sure of another victory on May 14. Erdoğan likes to be outraged by the West’s alleged arrogance towards Muslims, and in doing so he not only creates atmosphere, but also votes. The action of the right-wing political clown Paludan is perfect for this.

On the other hand, and this is where the dilemma begins, Turkey has so far used its resistance to Sweden joining NATO as a poker chip. Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu was in Washington just last week. The topic of the talks was Turkey’s urgent desire to receive F-16 fighter jets. Since Ankara 2019, the Russian missile defense system S-400 acquired, the United States is blocking arms purchases from the NATO partner. In addition, Erdoğan recently initiated a radical change in his Syria policy towards reconciliation with the dictator Bashar al-Assad – to the great annoyance of the USA.

The President has not yet slammed all the doors

Erdoğan’s initial reaction to Stockholm sounded harsh, but not as if all the bazaar doors were slammed shut. Speaking in Ankara, he said: If the Swedish government doesn’t show respect for the religious beliefs of Turkey and Muslims, “unfortunately, they won’t get any support from us in NATO. If they love members of terrorist organizations and enemies of Islam that much, we guess them to leave the defense of their country to them.”

According to Turkish media reports on Tuesday evening, Ankara canceled a meeting planned for February with representatives of Sweden and Finland about their NATO accession. A new date was not named.

Turkey has been blocking the two Nordic countries from joining the alliance for months. She accuses Sweden in particular of being lenient towards the banned Kurdish PKK and is demanding the extradition of several people, including alleged supporters of the Islamic Gülen movement, which she blames for the 2016 coup attempt. Of 30 NATO members, only Turkey and Hungary have not yet approved the recordings.

The Turkish opposition by no means reacted more leniently, on the contrary. It seems as if she wants to surpass the president in rhetorical sharpness in the election campaign. Opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the secular CHP tweeted: “I condemn this fascism, the pinnacle of hate crime.” Meral Akşener, head of the right-wing IYI ​​party and with the CHP in the electoral alliance, used extra strong expressions for “immoral and dishonorable” in Turkish, which is rich in swear words.

The pro-government Hurriyet on the other hand, raised concerns: “Are we taking the madman who burned the Koran in Sweden too seriously? How about we ignore this guy? If we whisper to him: Go to hell?” The critical sheet already had on Monday Karar asked what relations Paludan had “with the Russian secret service”. “Provocations against Turkey are part of a comprehensive plan,” commented Karar.

Finland was open to joining NATO without Sweden for the first time on Tuesday. One could be forced to do so, even if joint accession remains the first option, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Finnish broadcaster Yle.

Erdoğan is expected in Poland at the end of January, according to Deutsche Welle, the issue is the war in Ukraine. He wants to travel from Poland to Germany. Once again, it might not be an easy visit. In 2018, 1.4 million Turks in Germany were eligible to vote. Erdoğan may try to win their votes.

The ambassador of the Netherlands was summoned to the foreign ministry in Ankara on Tuesday. The Dutch Pegida leader Edwin Wagensveld had previously destroyed a Koran in Den Hag. However, many Turks may be more interested in what Erdoğan announced after a cabinet meeting: an amnesty for tax evaders before the election. The newspaper critical of the government Sozcu to this: “Citizens who have already paid their debts are the idiots.”

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