Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made history at Davos tonight, by stalking off the stage at the World Economic Forum.
I watched the incident on the TV and I felt that it was somehow surreal.
First, it was the Israeli President Shimon Peres who adopted a rather aggressive manner, while talking directly to the Turkish PM with a raised voice. David Ignatius, the WP columnist who was the moderator of the panel, tried to end the session just after Peres' speech, without giving any more time to Erdogan.
And Erdogan lost it completely at that moment... With an angry, but shaky voice, he intervened and lashed out on Peres harshly. In Turkish, he didn't address Peres in the plural form and that is clearly offensive when you talk to someone you are not closely affiliated with and especially when they are older statesmen. Moreover, Erdogan even said that Peres, in person, "knows how to kill people very well," before walking off the stage to protest the moderation.
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Diabetic Temper?
If you ask me, I would argue that the main reason of the boil was the nature of Erdogan and the enviromental conditions in the Davos panel on the Gaza problem.
THE ENVIRONMENT: You know that I'm not the biggest fan of PM Erdogan and his AKP, but I must admit that Ignatius and Peres have provoked him. Ignatius was not a good moderator -he can even be called a biased one. But Peres, as a Head of State on this platform of free expression, had got every right to talk whatever he wanted.
ERDOGAN'S NATURE: Erdogan is a bomb without a fuse. If you have that fuse, you can explode it easily. It was reported that his diabetic condition is a factor. The furor that you have seen in Davos tonight is what we watch almost everyday in Turkey: A Prime Minister who roasts and roars whenever he confronts a different opinion, whether from an opposition figure or a journalist. And only then he tries to fix things, just like he did during the post-session press conference tonight.
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Electioneering?
In short, Erdogan's latest reaction was probably another spontaneous, natural -and in someway foolish- response from him. The only difference is the fact that it happened this time on the international scene -which always praises him as a democratic, moderate Islamic leader.
Now everybody can see that he is neither democratic, nor moderate because he is not a wise and calm statesman. He can remain as a good politician, though; so we may still take a smaller possibility seriously: Maybe Erdogan's reaction was completely planned.
What could be the purpose?
1) Maybe, with this ultimately populist discourse, he wanted to tease his citizens to get more votes in the upcoming local elections in Turkey.
2) He might have been pissed off by the Jewish lobby in the US. This lobby, which now tries to use the Armenian genocide card to corner Ankara, is also penetrative in the prospective IMF loan to Turkey, which is postponed once again after additional demands of the IMF. Maybe Erdogan is after the Arab capital now, who knows?
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Blame David Ignatius!
Whether delibarate or spontaneous, Erdogan's reaction was more childish than diplomatic, if you ask me. It will make many Turks (and probably Muslims) to sympatize with their worn-down Prime Minister in the short term. On the other hand, it would damage Turkey's reputation in the eyes of the Israeli people and politicians and this would have long-lasting negative effects.
And David... You have pulled the trigger, man. Should I accuse the Washington Post once again, branding a new conspiracy theory, or should I praise the WP staff now for dropping the masks?
