Turkey Twitter users flout Erdogan ban

Ironically Gul was the person to sign a legislation a few weeks ago to enable the shutdown of a website in just a matter of few hours (in less than 4 hours to be precise). He either doesn't actually read before signing it or is mocking with people.

They are basically playing the good cop-bad cop with Erdogan.

The Turkish government is deeply divided, between the islamist faction (Erdogan) and followers of the Gülen movement ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClen_movement ).

Recently, the Gülen faction, who has the support of much of the judiciary, has stepped up political attacks against Erdogan in the form of bugging, recording and releasing phone calls that show corruption among Erdogan and his top officials. These recordings have led to further protests (people have been protesting against Erdogan for a variety of reasons for over a year now).

As for Erdogan's credibility, he has very little for many reasons, not least of which for hosting jihadi terrorists on Turkish territory.

Nope, president Gul is likely a follower of Fethullah Gulen, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fethullah_G%C3%BClen) a muslim cleric with massive amounts of influence in Turkey and the world. Gulenists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClen_movement) and AKP used to be allies, and that's how AKP came to power. I'm surprised at how "clean" his wiki page is and how moderate they make him look. He's a hardcore islamist and is known for taking in helpless children young under the guise of aid and indoctrinating them in his own schools. Like the Muslim equivalent of the missionaries. Gulen schools are known to be rigorous and many of their students then get scholarships to study in the west in Europe and America. Then they serve the "congregation", as it's called. Gulen has gotten a large number of politicians and businessmen under his influence in this way and others. It is also said that as a result of his international efforts, he has significant sway in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Recently, they had a falling out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_corruption_scandal_in_Turk...) and a crapton of damning confidential phone recordings of higher-ups were released to the public. (Read more here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7439128 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7440964) People guess that Gulen and his folks are behind these releases, in a bid to take AKP down.

Erdogan realizes that he's out of good moves and the local elections rapidly approach. Our best guess is that this was a reaction to get new audio recordings out of the hands of the public. The recordings have been popping up once every few days, and it's expected that there will be a really big revelation in the next few days leading to the local elections on the 30th. This could really sway the election results and ultimately kick AKP out of power.

His record is clean in the sense that (unlike the prime minister) there has been no allegations or evidence of corruption involving him. He has been positioning himself as the more modern, tolerant option the conservative AKP party that has been in power over the decade.

However, it's safe to say that he talked to talk but failed to walk it. When the government started passing laws that undermine the independence of judicial system, free media, etc. he decided to tow the party line and failed to take any action, even symbolic ones, disappointing many that expected more from him.

He also has not taken any action or made any comments to address the corruption allegations against the government. It appears, he is aligned with the current administration in their struggle to hold on to power. Possible conclusions are a)he does not believe they are corrupt (despite significant evidence to the contrary) b) he believes struggle against Gulen movement is more important c) his hands are not sufficiently clean to take any action

His current position is indeed mostly ceremonial but still has impact. More importantly, there is (at least was) discussion to change the system towards a more powerful presidency along the lines of France or US. Gul was presenting himself as the more palatable and clean option (the modern conservative). It is not clear he can convince the masses on this anymore.

The irony is, Gul recently approved legislation that allowed the Turkish government to ban sites like Twitter. He then tweeted about his reasons for approving the new law (see his Feb 18 tweets).

Now, he's tweeting saying that banning Twitter is clearly unacceptable. In other words, he's breaking a law that he signed into law last month.

I think this is because stubbornness is built into the Turkish national identity. Especially when it comes to politics, if people start to feel that they are being wronged, they will be very, very stubborn about finding a way to express it.