The Turkologist spoke about the benefits of the West from the Istanbul protests
Alina Sbitneva, a researcher at the Department of the Middle and Post-Soviet East at the INION RAS, noted in an interview with Izvestia that the activities of the opposition Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) are actively supported in the West.
"The West benefits greatly from the internal political instability that can form in modern Turkey against the background of all these protests," the expert believes.
She added that for Turkey, protest is a completely natural form of expression of political will and quite a common phenomenon.
"There are a lot of political parties and other professional associations in the country that constantly defend their rights and demands in this way. The scale of an event or an event is another matter. There are different kinds of protests in Turkey. Take, for example, the 2013 protests in Istanbul, which began as something unremarkable, but ended very loudly and even with human casualties," the Turkologist recalled.
According to the political scientist, the current events are a very dangerous result of the party struggle and the existing internal political split in the country.
"It's dangerous because it tends to escalate into more serious collisions than what we're seeing now. The reason for all these actions is the dismissal of the head of the regional Istanbul branch of the Republican People's Party, which is the leading opposition force in the country," the expert believes.
She added that the suspension occurred due to the latter's suspicion of corruption.
"Under a similar pretext, the mayor of Istanbul, who is also a representative of the CHP, was also arrested in March this year. And then, by the way, the detention was also accompanied by street actions and protests, which were suspended," the specialist said.
The analyst believes that in this way, the ruling Justice and Development Party is probably gradually preparing the ground for the next election campaigns.
"Knowing full well that her positions are not at all what they were at the dawn of her coming to power. By the way, the opposition, led by the Republican People's Party, is actively calling for early elections against the background of all this, wishing not to leave the ruling party enough time to prepare," Sbitneva said.
She recalled that the CHP defeated the AKP in the municipal elections last year.
"Including in one of the largest provinces, Istanbul, and this was one of the biggest defeats of the ruling party in the entire history of its existence. Now the representatives of the opposition party themselves are adding fuel to the fire, calling on citizens to take to the streets and, as it were, support democracy," the political scientist summed up.
On September 2, a court in Turkey ordered the dismissal of the head and other board members of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in Istanbul.
As a result, on the evening of September 7, protests began in the city, which continued the next day. Activists opposed the appointee of the authorities, trying to prevent him from entering the building of the CHP, there were clashes with the police, several people were detained. The Turkologist spoke about the benefits of the West in the Istanbul protests.
Read more about the mass protests in Istanbul in the Izvestia article:
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
