Prof. Avi Shlaim: Erdogan is behaving like the old, authoritarian Arab dictators

Avi Shlaim is a fellow of St. Antony’s College and a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford.  Professor Shlaim is the author of numerous books, most notably The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, and is a regular contributor to The Guardian, the leading liberal British broadsheet. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

I contacted Professor Shlaim  about the Gezi Park  protests and asked him the following questions:

Tayyip Erdogan is a popular figure in Palestine for his support for the Palestinian cause. Do you think this would change after what happened in Turkey? Can you defend the victims of the oppression abroad when you oppress your own citizens at home ? How convincing would you be?

 

Mr Erdogan gained a great deal of popularity not just in Palestine but in the entire Arab world for his strong stand against Israel in the aftermath of the 2008-9 Gaza war. He seemed to stand for freedom, democracy, and justice for the Palestinian people. Today his brutal repression of peaceful protest at home casts doubts about his sincerity and exposes him to the charge of double standards. This is bound to be very damaging to his reputation abroad and not only in the Arab world.

Moreover, Mr Erdogan’s brutal crackdown is also damaging to Turkey’s reputation. The Arab Spring gave Turkey an opportunity to take the lead in the Middle East. Turkey was seen as the proof that political Islam is not incompatible with democracy. Turkey was able to present itself as a model for all the Arab states. Now Mr Erdogan is behaving like the old, authoritarian Arab dictators. The result is disappointment and disillusion with him in the region and in the rest of the world.