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      Critics, Even Supporters Say: ErdoÄan is the Man Who Would Be Caliph

   by Jamie Dettmer

   With days to go to Turkey's November 1 parliamentary elections,
   officials couldn't even agree on the time of day.
   Turkey had been due to add an hour on Saturday night at the end of
   summertime daylight saving, but at the last minute the Turkish
   government postponed the seasonal time change until after the polls in
   this highly polarized nation, prompting thousands of Turks to blame the
   resulting confusion on Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan, saying
   he even thinks he can hold back time.
   Nothing much happens in Turkey without ErdoÄan being seen to have been
   behind it.
   His supporters see him as a caliph, who stands against the forces of
   disorder and anarchy, the leader able to usher in a neo-Ottoman era for
   Turkey, if only his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, secures a
   majority on November 1.  Pro-AKP newspaper columnist Abdurrahman
   Dilipak this week said the Turkish President could become "caliph" of
   all Sunni Muslims in the world, if only ErdoÄan could manage to fulfill
   his often-stated aim of shifting Turkey to a presidential system of
   governance.

   '''
   A strong leader
   The strong leader image has been carefully cultivated by ErdoÄan. On
   the campaign trail he warns of Turkey's many enemies, Kurds, the West,
   leftists, rights activists, and journalists, weaving them all into a
   conspiratorial web.  During a weekend speech at Hasan Kalyoncu
   University in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, he accused world
   powers of wanting to divide Turkey.  "They have not been able to
   succeed and they will not succeed," he said.
   His enemies also see him as the man who would be caliph, one who rides
   roughshod over secularism and modernity and would further erode the
   order established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the secular founder of the
   Republic of Turkey.
   ErdoÄan's name won't appear on any of the ballot papers Turks will be
   presented with on November 1, but the second parliamentary elections
   this year have all been about Turkey's controversial leader.  "The
   president is illegally and unethically getting involved in the election
   process and is disturbing the operation of the government," said
   politics professor Ersin KalaycıÄlu.
   Election for parliament
   Opposition politicians claim ErdoÄan's ego has dragged the country into
   another election amid a deep security crisis, one they say he created.
   They say he purposely sabotaged the formation of a coalition government
   in June, following voters delivering the country's first hung
   parliament since 2002, making a snap election necessary.

   Opposition parties have cast the poll as a crucial test of the
   country's democracy.
   As far as ErdoÄan's critics see it, the November election will be about
   how much power the president should be able to wield in the future.
   That also was the main issue in the June election, one that
   undermined ErdoÄan's stated ambition to alter the constitution and turn
   Turkey's ceremonial presidency into the real seat of authority.  The
   failure of his ruling Justice and Development Party to gain a majority
   of seats upset the Turkish leader's aim to recast the country's
   political system.

   '''
   ErdoÄan on the campaign trail
   Far from trying to shift the focus of the election, ErdoÄan has been
   front and center of the Islamist-based AKP's election campaign.  With
   rising political violence and the resumed insurgency by Kurdish
   separatists following Turkish airstrikes on their bases, the political
   stakes are even higher this time than in June.
   Since 1954, Turkish governments calling for early elections have lost
   in the polls.  According to analysts, ErdoÄan is banking on the
   instability and political violence to encourage voters to turn back to
   the AKP and embrace a forthright leader.

   Opposition parties are banking on an electoral backlash.  Their
   campaign messages have focused on arguing the president has been
   stoking political violence to scare the voters into supporting him.
   Opposition: ErdoÄan is dividing Turkey
   Selahattin DemirtaÅ, the HDP leader, accuses President ErdoÄan of
   deliberately using divisive language, ratcheting up the language of
   confrontation and of trying to frighten Turks.
   "People have been separated according to parties, hometowns, sects,
   identities and religious communities.  The government has done this...
   In the past, we were accused of being separatist.  Now, the HDP is
   trying to unite people.  We are an antidote to the poison.  Poison has
   been given to the people of Turkey and if we cannot act as an antidote
   against it, even civil war could break out," DemirtaÅ warned in a
   newspaper interview published Monday.

   ''
   DemirtaÅ also criticized the AKP government for trying to divert
   attention from what he claims was security negligence in Ankara that
   allowed bombers to strike a peace rally in the capital earlier this
   month, killing 102 people.
   The two suicide bombers have been linked to the Islamic State terror
   group, but ErdoÄan has held many terrorist organizations, including the
   Islamic State and Kurdish separatists of being together responsible for
   the attack, part of the conspiratorial web the AKP is trying to weave,
   the HDP leader said.  "The prime minister and the president point to
   groups that would never come together and say, 'They got united and
   made an attack against Turkey,'" he said.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/critics-even-supporters-say-erdogan-i
   s-the-man-who-would-be-caliph/3024375.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/critics-even-supporters-say-erdogan-is-the-man-who-would-be-caliph/3024375.html