Page 90 - Secular News Today

Thats their demand. now, of course, the united states and the western european allies of turkey are asking the prime minister to resolve this through negotiations with people and resolve it through the principles and according to european, turkey is a major ally of the united states in the west. >> you spoke to prime minister erdogan a number of times. what is your impression of how hes handling this? he made statements that is anything but delicate. >> that is what inflamed the situation. he to...

Turkish authorities to uphold these fundamental freedoms." >> it is in living memory the harshest the u.s. government has been of a nato ally i would say because the statement calls on the government in turkey to respect basic freedoms expression and assembly. it goes to the core of the problem. the core of the problem we are seeing in turkey liberal, secular, middle-class turks rise up to a conservative democratically elected authoritarian government telling the government "listen to us. hear o...

Viewers, you see the bulldozer right in the heart of taksim square. fareed how would you describe this situation thats unfolding? clearly a major crisis for turkey. >> wolf its a major crisis. if you want an analogy, this is chicago in 1968. this is a huge culture clash in a democratic country. prime minister erdogan has been elected three times but, remember he has never received more than 50% of the popular vote. the way turkish parliamentary works. you see the anatolian groups that have voted...

Has basically side lined and effectively put a stop to, but everybody worries about that. even erdogan himself in his recent speeches has sort of dartdly hinted to the last times there was this kind of uproar and there was coupes in the 60s and 80s, military coupes. there is that. there is also the question that three times elected, 11 years in power, despite his very, very solid relationships and alliances with the west, mainly amongst his people, particularly a certain young secular business m...

Thats considered a good thing in terms of democracy. hes done a lot of reforms even in the police arena. hes also done a lot of judicial reforms and spurred turkeys economy. but with that has come the sense that hes been around a long time and hes not listening to his people anymore and he has unfettered ability to, lets say, build a new worlds biggest airport, put up some kind of structure in gezi park, taksim square, build a massive mosque. all these things that many leaders do, a lot of infra...

Listen to anyone anymore, that he can do whatever kind of project he wants, that he can implement an islamic agenda and interfere, and this is to quote protesters i spoke to earlier, in the personal lives of people living in turkey. this country has been secular for the last 90 years. the protesters say as he grows in power, hes imposing his own personal islamic agenda on this very large, very important country in the middle east. >> richard, i want to ask you about what the protesters are like ...

Is erdogan do you think leaning towards agaffiliation more formerly with islamic republic leaders as opposed to his prior affect which seemed to be, are as i said earlier, seeking a relationship with the european union, wanting to be built on capitalistic secular are principles as a government? >> this sunni islamist leadership that is headed by erdogan is really almost wanting to reconstitute a new ottoman hegemony over the middle east. he sees himself as the next great of sunni arab leader to ...

Absolutely secular, secular in every degree with the military of its main pillar of support. the military, and to a degree the people here in the streets, are trying to defend that 90 years of secularism. they see the prime minister representing the 500 years of islamic tradition. they think hes acting like a sultan from the old days of the ottoman empire. >> okay, richard. stand by. i want to go back to tony shaffer. someone brought up jordan. talk about jordans ability to handle any spillover....

Treasury department, and we have vast relationships and deep ones with turkey. we have bailed out turkey about 15 years ago when they were in a financial crisis. we have the military relationship and these diplomatic relationships. so the whole government at this stage is going to become engaged in understanding whats on the ground. but theres a challenge right now, which is that we actually have a pending secretary for europe, victoria nuland, who will be awaiting confirmation. she would be the...

Grievances. it spread to egypt, to yemen. so i think there are clear echoes there. we have to remember, turkey has its own very peculiar history here. its no accident that both the protesters and the government are invoking the father of modern turkey. he was a hard-line authoritarian leader who nonetheless pulled modern turkey out of its islamist past, out of the ottoman empire years. so you have the prime minister sort of invoking him as a strong leader. on the other hand, you have the protest...