This Febuary 2, 2015 photo shows Turkish Nobel laureate and author Orhan Pamuk posing during an interview in his house in Istanbul. (AFP photo)
A senior Turkish intellectual has blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the growing climate of insecurity in the country, saying Erdogan’s persistence in gaining a majority in the parliament has brought the country to the brink of sectarian conflict.
Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 winner of the Nobel prize for literature, said Monday that the failure by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to retain a majority in legislative votes in June laid the groundwork for the resumption of hostilities between the government and Kurdish militants.
“The electoral defeat enraged Erdogan … he didn’t succeed in convincing the Kurds to give him their votes for his plan to create a presidential republic,” Pamuk told Italian daily La Repubblica.
Snap votes are planned for November 1 as the AKP failed to reach a consensus on forming a coalition government with major opposition parties. Turkey has also been engaged in airstrikes against the positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in north Iraq for the past months, dismantling a once-active political dialog with the group and prompting revenge attacks on civilians and security forces across the country. Around 100 people were killed two days ago in deadly bombings targeting a peace rally in the capital Ankara.
Pamuk said Erdogan’s decision to hold snap elections eventually set the scene for fresh attacks on Kurdish militants.
“That is why he decided to go to the polls again on November 1. But neither the government nor the army were satisfied with how things were going and they agreed to resume the war against the Kurdish movement,” said Pamuk, adding that everyone now is aware of what Erdogan has been planning over the past months.
“The entire country has understood his calculation … At first, he did not want to be part of the international coalition fighting Islamic State (Daesh). Then he agreed to do what the Americans asked him to, but at the same time he started bombing the Kurds,” he said.
The respected author, who also teaches at Colombia University, said he fears that Turkey may again slide into civil war like the 1970s.
“Anyone over 35 has terrible memories of that period and never wants to go back there,” he said, adding, “I am worried (for Turkey) because I know that in the end Erdogan wants to govern alone at all costs…He does not want to share power,” Pamuk said.