Turkey: Is Twitter Mightier than Prime Minister Erdogan?

Who are the people behind these accounts? One of the accounts claims to be an “Ankara insider.” Tweets coming from @fuatavni indicate that someone close to the AKP inner circle, perhaps even a one-time Erdoğan advisor, is providing a constant stream of information targeting the PM and his methods of rule. The Tweets, detailing specific incidents, address the PM directly, ending with haunting refrains such as: “Don’t just be afraid, tremble” or “You’re one of the defeated”.

Some of the Tweets of @fuatavni have a religious tone, others are conspiratorial, while others still are menacing such as this one from March 23: “You [Erdoğan] claim ‘They’ve listened in on me, my ministers, my son and my daughter’. If you set up a money laundering ring with your ministers, your son and your daughter, public prosecutors will listen.” Someone, likely with ties to the influential Islamic preacher Fetullah Gülen and with knowledge of the PM’s decision-making and movements is openly exposing the record of his authoritarianism on Twitter.

For Turkish “followers,” secular and religious both, Twitter represents justice in a country where the judiciary is no longer independent; it represents an independent media in a country where the government controls the media and imprisons journalists. It represents a means to appeal in a country that passes Internet censorship laws and abuses antiterrorism laws to target lawful dissent and opposition. It is the public square – a safe arena for democratic protest in a country where the freedom to assemble is met with teargas and water cannon.

And it represents a space for ethics and morality in a country where the government, reeling from corruption allegations, has lost credibility. All indications are that the Twitter ban – supposedly aimed at boosting the ruling AKP in the coming elections – has backfired. It’s only given further legitimacy to the local opposition and increased international isolation. Members of the AKP from President Abdullah Gül to Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, have already begun emphasizing that the block will be temporary. The Union of Turkish Bar Associations, meanwhile, has filed a petition to lift the ban on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Turkey is divided, with close to half of the populace holding an unconditional belief in Erdoğan, while the other half feels that the prime minister has now lived out the useful extent of his political life. If Erdoğan doesn’t run for president in August (which after the Gezi protests and the Dec. 17 scandal looks doubtful), and if he doesn’t extend term limits (which is unlikely), he may be ushered out of the political limelight sometime this year. Speculation has now turned to the matter of when and how he will leave the stage. (read more, in Turkish)

The following point will be lost on nobody: AKP Deputy Prime Minister Arınç (@bulent_arinc) was among the first AKP members to Tweet (in his case, his daily schedule) as the ban was going into effect last Friday. Some bloggers were facetiously begging AKP members to please honor their own ban on Twitter. Arınç was followed by President Gül (@cbabdullahgul), who Tweeted, “Total bans on social media platforms are unacceptable,” and then nine minutes later, “I hope this measure won’t last long.”

Erdağ Göknar is Assistant Professor of Turkish & Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University and core faculty member of the Duke Islamic Studies Center. Göknar teaches the popular “Geopolitics & Culture from Bosnia to Afghanistan” course in the fall and co-leads the Duke in Turkey undergraduate summer program. Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel (Routledge, 2013) is his latest book. He is also a regular contributor to ISLAMiCommentary. See an earlier analysis of Erdogan and the AKP here.