Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 28 2008

Civil, mannered and sane politicians wanted

Turkey’s politicians are adopting increasingly tougher and ruder
language against each other: Several cases over the past week have
revealed once again how easily they can lose their temper with rivals
and use vulgar, churlish and even insulting language, which is far
from befitting a member of Parliament.

On one such occasion last week, Republican People’s Party (CHP)
deputy Canan Arıtman, who linked President Abdullah
Gül’s pro-freedom approach toward an apology campaign recently
launched by several intellectuals over Armenian killings at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 to Gül’s ethnic roots, said she
would like to throw a shoe at the president when she sees him, the
same way an Iraqi journalist hurled a shoe at visiting US President
George Bush on Dec. 14.

Although many agreed that as a member of Parliament, it was
Arıtman’s right to criticize Gül, the fact that she
openly revealed her intention to attack the president, the person who
represents the country, has been met with criticism.

Andrew Finkel, a British journalist covering Turkish politics for many
years and a columnist for Today’s Zaman, said there was a combination
of factors that lead politicians to embrace unparliamentary
language. `There are frequent television pictures of parliamentary
brawls in South Asian politics. Fisticuffs seem to have an honorable
place in Korean or Thai politics.’

Looking back on recent years, he said it was not long ago that there
were fights at party conventions in Turkey; during the 1990s there was
a lot of throwing of plastic chairs at CHP and Motherland Party (ANAP,
now ANAVATAN) party conferences.

`I remember attending one controversial vote in Parliament and
witnessing the [now-defunct] Virtue Party [FP] members attacking [in
the sense of rushing across the floor of Parliament] CHP members from
Ä°zmir who held up a sign mocking them. I think Abdullah
Gül was one of them. I never saw him move so fast,’ Finkel told
Sunday’s Zaman.

On another such occasion, an independent deputy from the eastern
province of Tunceli who is notorious for using abrasive language,
Kamer Genç, astonished all with remarks about parliamentary
deputies during a speech in Ä°zmir last weekend. `You insult
them in the strongest way possible from Parliament’s podium, but they
remain silent; they feel no embarrassment. They rob people; you tell
them, and still they feel no embarrassment. There is only one way
forward in such a situation: to shoot those deputies in the head,’
Genç said in statements met with criticism and largely
interpreted as being provocative. Nevzat Tarhan, a professor of
psychiatry also known for his research in social and political
psychology, thinks the use of angry and unbecoming language by Turkish
politicians could be due to several reasons.

According to the professor, an angry mood can be part of someone’s
character, urging them to react furiously and unexpectedly. In his
view, such a mood is the signal of a politician’s authoritarian
leadership style, while a democratic leader’s attributes would include
persuasion through the use of temperate language. `Having such a mood
is a shortcoming for a politician. It leads him/her to loneliness and
wards off different opinions around them, leaving only people who
unwillingly approve and praise that leader’s actions out of fear,’ he
said.

Another reason cited by Tarhan for the angry mood of politicians could
be a feeling of despair, weakness and incompetence. The influence of
group psychology can also play a role as some deputies often get
carried away with each other’s remarks in Parliament and find
themselves in a fierce quarrel or exchanging blows with other
deputies.

`If there are angry people in a party who show their reactions in a
harsh way, they influence others to behave the same way. Some parties
hold party congresses very peacefully without any incidents because
there are no angry people in their ranks.’

In September, Young Party (GP) leader Cem Uzan was convicted of
insulting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an and was ordered
by a court to enroll in an anger management program and read five
books on `anger management’ and `self development,’ a first in the
history of Turkish politics.

Most recently, last Friday, Parliament witnessed a fight between
Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputy Sırrı Sakık
and CHP deputy Mevlüt AslanoÄ?lu when the latter accused
Sakık of being a `denouncer.’ After walking towards
AslanoÄ?lu, Sakık tried to punch him and appeared to have
hit him. Other deputies intervened, breaking up the fight. Deputy
Parliament Speaker Meral AkÅ?ener ended the meeting, and DTP
Deputy Chairman Selahattin DemirtaÅ? went up to the rostrum and
apologized on behalf of his party.

A former politician and a columnist for the Radikal daily, Hasan Celal
Güzel, thinks it is a tradition for Turkey’s politicians to
adopt unparliamentary language as this has been the case throughout
the history of the republic.

`But such political fights and language are not peculiar to Turkish
politics as politicians of other countries are involved in similar
situations,’ said Güzel.

According to Güzel, the reason why such bad and unbecoming
language is widely used in politics is the main opposition CHP, which
he says always resorts to non-democratic means for the settlement of
parliamentary disputes.

Güzel agrees that the public sometimes approves of such actions
by politicians depending on who the politician is and how he expressed
his anger.

Before last year’s July 22 elections, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an, who is frequently criticized for his angry outbursts,
rebuked a farmer in the southern province of Mersin in front of
cameras after the farmer had complained to him about his deteriorating
financial situation due to government policies, saying, `You made my
mother cry, prime minister.’ In response, an angry ErdoÄ?an told
the farmer, `Take your mother and leave,’ in remarks that were
interpreted as very tough and not befitting a prime minister.

Although ErdoÄ?an’s opponents severely criticized him at the
time and accused him of using insulting language against a citizen,
his party ended up winning the general elections, receiving 46.6
percent of the nationwide vote.

Güzel said although the public generally disapproves of the use
of tough language, they may welcome and enjoy it on certain occasions,
as in ErdoÄ?an’s case, according to the situation and the person
who used that language. `A smile could change many things,’ added
Güzel.

28 December 2008, Sunday
FATMA DÄ°Å?LÄ° Ä°STANBUL