Washington times blogger: "Erdogan, like Palin, draws on anti-elitist sentiment"

Much like former Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, a great deal of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity has to do with him cultivating the sense that he's an "average" person, in opposition to the "elite," argued Washington Times blogger Claire Berlinski yesterday. Denouncing a controversial sculpture in Kars, eastern Turkey, as a "monstrosity," Erdogan recently said, "I know a thing or two about sculpture. You don't have to have a fine arts degree to admire a work of art." In his comments, Erdogan is evoking "something very similar to the anti-elitist sentiment Sarah Palin is often said to exploit," wrote Berlinski. "There is a huge segment of Turkey that has long felt the contempt of Turkey's educated sophisticates, who strive with especial eagerness to be cultured and European and who clearly view them as ignorant (and) backward." She added, "A lot of what's going on Turkey really has to do with Turks feeling patronized by what they perceive as an elite class – associated in their minds with 'Europeans' – who look down on them. No one likes the feeling that the elites are looking down on them."