NO TO ERDOGAN!


In the western media our current prime minister -and ex poetry reader- Tayyip Erdogan is depicted as a re-born democrat who suffered under the opressive secular elite. Though I agree on the second part, that the secularism in Turkey is opressive, I do not believe Erdogan is a re-born democrat.

Recently, Bekir Coskun, a prominent opposition journalist wrote on his column that the president-to-be Abdullah Gül will not be his president, and accused Gül -like many in the opposition- of having a fundamentalist agenda.

Erdogan, in an TV Interview a day later told Coskun should give up his Turkish nationality and leave the country. This kind of "join us or leave us" is more reminiscent of authoritarian dictators, and must send shivers down the spines of every Turkish citizen who is dreaming of a freer and more modern Turkey.

If you are interested in my personal opinion, I believe everyone, including the politicians have the right -and must- change as the times go by. However Abdullah Gül has not convinced me yet that he has done so, and that is why I am against his presidency. Yet I am against Bekir Coskun's line of reasoning, he is mine and his president, and that is a fact of democracy. When it comes to Erdogan, I hope he learns some time soon that democracy is not the tyranny of the majority and it only is viable when every single individual is able to live his life according to his morals as long as he is not hurting or exploiting others.

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