With Turkey in his thrall, the president calls a snap election,
ANKARA, TURKEY— As U.S. President Donald Trump has his tweets, the leader of Turkey has his speeches. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes up to three every weekday — two a day on weekends — and his charismatic, combative talks are the primary vehicle of his success.
He calls democracy advocates “marauders.” He mocks the German foreign minister as a “disaster.” He is as comfortable in the vernacular as he is reciting poetry. He takes on his enemies publicly by name, pivoting seamlessly from pious to pushy.
Even after 15 years at the helm, Erdogan, whose skills as an orator even his opponents envy, treats every event like a campaign rally — and he turns just about every day into one. He remains the country’s most popular politician and is poised to seek re-election, with polling showing him with more than 40-percent support.
This week, in a surprising announcement, Erdogan called early elections for June 24, a move that could cement his grip on power more than a year ahead of schedule. (The elections were originally scheduled for November 2019.)
Turkey is switching from a parliamentary system to a presidential one, abolishing the office of the prime minister and decreasing the powers of the parliament, following a narrowly approved referendum last year. The changes take effect with the next election.
Erdogan will be heavily favoured to win that election. Much of his appeal can be credited to his ubiquitous media presence and a speaking style that supporters find inspiring, and detractors divisive. Neither side doubts that it has struck a chord with Turkey’s conservative working class.
In that regard, Erdogan fits perfectly with the deepening global trend toward autocrats and swaggering strongmen (they are all men) who have found a way to speak forcefully for common people who feel their point of view has been ignored for too long.
Erdogan’s speeches are often broadcast live on multiple television channels, almost universally pro-government, from every event he attends. His voice is heard everywhere, in cafes, homes and government offices across the land.
His favourite recipe: attacking people his supporters love to hate, be it the United States, European leaders or the liberal elite.
To his support base, Erdogan talks like a father, a brother or the man next door. “He is one of us,” supporters often explain. And he says what he thinks, in salty, everyday language, just like them.
“And now they have a foreign minister — oh, my God — what a disaster,” Erdogan railed to supporters in the western region of Denizli last summer, at the height of his country’s tensions with Germany.
“He never knows his place,” Erdogan continued. “Who are you — Ha! — speaking to the president of Turkey? You are talking to the foreign minister of Turkey. Know your place.”
“And he attempts to give us a lesson. What is your history in politics? How old are you? Our life passed with those struggles in politics.”
The passage was vintage Erdogan. “Stylistically, he is always full of surprises,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a former journalist and senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “He does not mind shocking people, and taking people on in a very public manner.”
Often that means upsetting people that his supporters do not like. He jeered at pro-democracy protesters in Istanbul for their liberal lifestyle, calling them “marauders” and mocking their drinking habits: “They drink until they puke.”
And he made a notoriously coarse remark about a socialist feminist protester who climbed onto an armoured vehicle in Ankara, wondering if she were a girl or a woman, essentially questioning her virginity.
But Erdogan also inspires with poetry and tales of the life of the Prophet Muhammad. He drops his voice with reverence to honour fallen soldiers, and then raises it to stir national pride.
The religious sermonizing is very much part of Erdogan’s training. He studied at a religious school for prayer leaders and preachers, learning among his courses Islamic preaching.
Liberals and secularists have often criticized his divisive speech and his introduction of religion into politics, yet it is what most of his pious Muslim followers want to hear.
“For conservatives, this is someone defending their lifestyle,” Aydintasbas said.
He has a well-honed rhetorical style. In almost every speech, there is a moment when he shakes up the audience, suddenly switching gears. He turns from declarative speech to address directly, in imperative or interrogative style, whoever is the target of the day.
He has been particularly irritated by the United States’ alliance in Syria with the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Kurdish group that Turkey says is linked to terrorism.
“Hey, America! How many times I have told you?” he railed in a speech last year. “Are you with us, or are you with this terror group?”
Rather than bore his supporters with his political plans, he brings them into the meeting room with him.
“Can you tolerate what is happening in Ghouta?” he shouted recently, about the Syrian government’s offensive against rebels in a suburb of Damascus. “The UN made a resolution. Damn your resolution! What is the use of your resolution? You are cheating! You are only five,” a reference to the five permanent Security Council members. Aydintasbas compares Erdogan’s speaking style, as well as his relationship to his supporters, with those of Trump.
“Erdogan’s supporters always say he is genuine,” she said. “In an age when politics are so well scripted and sanitized in their messaging, it is refreshing when you have anger or even hatred which reflects their own feeling.”
Political opponents concede his talents, even if they dislike his divisive style.
“His style is in extreme harmony with the profile of right-wing, populist, authoritarian politicians,” said Ayhan Bilgen, spokesperson for the opposition Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party. “He prefers a political style that divides society and escalates tension.”
The opposition politician, Meral Aksener, who is preparing to challenge Erdogan in the next presidential elections, mocked the president’s endless speeches in a post this month on Twitter.
“I want to address Mr. Erdogan in your presence,” she said, using his favourite rhetorical trick. “Friend, please keep silent for a moment, spare a little bit time for your family, sit at home,” she said.