The tragedy of the coal mine disaster in the town of Soma is rapidly morphing into rancorous farce. There's a kind of poisonous absurdity in Turkish public life these days that puts the Erdogan era in the political overlap zone between Berlusconi and Putin. A common thread binds the three pseudo-democratic despots and it has everything to do with a supine mass media.
But first a quick recap: as I write some 283 miners are confirmed dead with perhaps another 140 to come. Prime Minister Erdogan visits the scene and is heckled by truly angry throngs who accuse his party of negligence. He is almost physically attacked; his handlers hustle him off to the safety of a grocery store. On one occasion he is actually seen punching a protester. When he launches into the soothing statesmanly speech required of him something entirely odd comes out. Such incidents, he reassures the crowd, are quite commonplace.
He cites mine disasters going back to the 19th century in Britain. He talks about comparable American disasters that have happened despite "every kind of technology". The mourning crowd, already stunned by tragedy, is further stunned. Social media nationwide erupts in mockery. Turks apparently should feel ok about it all. They're no different to any other truly advanced country. Furthermore, catastrophe hasn't visited Soma because Erdogan has turned Turkey into a corrupt, retrogressive, Mideastern entrepot. No, these things happen in the west too. Meanwhile, someone snaps a top Erdogan aide viciously kicking a protester on the ground, being held there by two riot police. The picture zooms around the world. And to top it all, Erdogan is heard to shout at the person he just has punched, "you spawn of Israel"!
All of which no doubt guarantees that this man will get himself successfully elected President. Just as soon as term limits force him to vacate the Prime Minister's post.
What on earth is going on here? Why does the officially elected premier of a country of nearly 80 million feel he can display such open lunacy? Why, despite huge recurrent scandals does his Teflon merely get thicker? Are the country's voters, who keep confirming him in power, thereby endorsing his lunacy, are they not seeing what we see day in day out? Are they mass hypnotized or what? In fact, the answer is they really are not seeing it. Very simply, he controls the conventional media and virtually none of this ever makes it to television screens or even the newspapers – they're all owned by conglomerates in turn owned by oligarchs in his thrall. How do you spell Putin in Turkish?
Most of these incidents live and die on the internet. Most AK party supporters are tech-illiterate; they get their news from television. Television news channels only show the damage and virulence of protest, a drizzle of images that ultimately look like mere anarchy loosed upon the country by rabid troublemakers. They supply a seamless stream of alternate reality. Ultimately it becomes a fight to define reality. As the last elections amply demonstrated, a demographic divide cuts across the country age-wise. The tech-literate young vote massively for the opposition. They know what's really happening because they share it over the internet. They're sick of constantly seeing a warped parallel universe reflected in the public space. They have no other outlet to share what they know than to go out and physically protest so as to puncture Erdogan's ersatz reality.
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