海角大神

News that hasn鈥檛 hit the headlines 鈥� yet

When President Barack Obama was preparing for military strikes on Syria last August, he called everyone聽who mattered聽鈥撀爀veryone except Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, although Turkey is a NATO ally that聽borders聽Syria and deeply opposes the Assad regime.

President Obama once spoke regularly with Mr. Erdogan, and for years the White House聽held up聽Turkey as a role model of a successful Islam-rooted democracy.

But when Mr. Obama called聽Mr. Erdogan on Feb. 19, it was after six months of silence聽鈥� a聽reflection聽of Washington鈥檚 displeasure at how Mr. Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) handled聽antigovernment聽protests last spring and their resorting to聽anti-Western conspiracy theories, blaming everyone from business newspapers and bankers to Jews and Americans.聽

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the brute force the police used聽[that caused the distance]鈥� it was the discourse of the AKP and Erdogan and all the AKP-controlled newspapers about a conspiracy 鈥� a conspiracy to overthrow the Turkish government,鈥� said Henri Barkey, a Turkey specialist at Lehigh University,聽speaking at at the Sulaimani Forum, an annual gathering hosted by the American University of Iraq, Sulaimaniyeh.

鈥淭hat came as a shock to the United States,鈥� said Mr. Barkey. 鈥淭hey quickly came to the realization that鈥�at a very senior level [Turkish officials] actually believed what they were saying.鈥�

Erdogan mounted a divisive "us vs. them" attack on聽Turkish critics who had accused him and the AKP of "authoritarian" behavior. He called them聽political losers linked to "terrorists" who had violated "our" mosques.

Late yesterday, Erdogan said Facebook and YouTube may be banned in Turkey after local elections on March 30 because the social media sites were being abused by his enemies.聽

Last May, Erdogan, his foreign minister and intelligence chief had dinner at the White House.聽Within weeks antigovernment protests had begun in Istanbul's Gezi Park.聽

鈥淭he president doesn鈥檛 invite people to his own house very often,鈥� said Barkey.聽鈥淪o it was actually a big gesture on the part of Obama, and yet two weeks later these same people were turning around and accusing essentially the US government and US institutions.鈥�

Erdogan and the AKP have since been plagued by an ever-widening聽corruption scandal,聽fed by leaked wiretapped conversations聽of the prime minister, that has felled several cabinet ministers.聽In response, the government has reassigned thousands of police and hundreds of investigators, accusing them of running a 鈥減arallel state鈥� for a US-based cleric and erstwhile ally Fethulleh Gulen.

The municipal elections at the end of March will show how much Erdogan and the AKP have been damaged by the protests, conspiracies, and string of corruption allegations.

Obama was reluctant to make the February call to Erdogan, says Barkey,聽"but he realized that he had to say something because too much had gone by."聽The official White House readout of the call said diplomatically that the president, among other issues, 鈥渘oted the importance of sound policies rooted in the rule of law.鈥澛�

"Erdogan is still going to remain as a central figure; he鈥檚 not going away that soon,鈥� says Barkey. 鈥淏ut he鈥檚 no longer going to be seen as the transformative leader he had aimed to be. The United States no longer looks at him this way, but鈥�sees him as creating uncertainty and potential instability.鈥�