Turkey sets sights high for Olympic bid

Should Turkey be awarded the 2020 Olympic Games, it will become the first country with a Muslim majority to host the event, but the bid could be derailed by anti-government protests which rocked the country in June. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to vote in Buenos Aires on September 7 to decide whether to award the 2020 Games to Istanbul, Madrid or Tokyo. Madrid is bidding for the third successive time having finished third and then second for the 2012 and 2016 Games respectively; Tokyo hosted the Games in 1964. The head of Turkey's bid said a vote for Istanbul would "make history". "In this region there has never been an Olympic Games before," Hasan Arat told AFP. "Look at our neighbours, 400 million in the age group (under-25s)! Now this Games is so important for their future and lives, creating role models." He added: "The Olympic Movement can open the door to a new culture." Turkey, a country of 76 million people, sits at the crossroads of East and West, and has long aspired to join the European Union, which sets strict requirements on human rights for prospective members. A wave of protests sparked on May 31 by an environment battle to save Gezi Park, near Istanbul's iconic Taksim Square, from redevelopment spiralled into mass displays of anger against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tarnishing Turkey's image abroad. Opponents accuse Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) of curbing freedoms and of pushing conservative values on the mainly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation. Erdogan's government took a tough stance against the protests and the heavy-handed response left at least five dead and thousands injured during three weeks of clashes between police and protesters, earning Ankara a strong rebuke from its Western allies. "The so-called Gezi crisis definitely harmed Turkey's image and worried a lot of political officials in Turkey," said Jean-Francois Polo, professor at Galatasaray University. He said a failure to be awarded the Olympics would be considered a "humiliation for a country that has been struggling hard for years to improve its image, to grow and to defend some kind of modernity compatible with Islam". The AKP has won three elections in a row, having presided over strong economic growth, and utilised the vacuum that emerged in the wake of the Arab Spring, to promote its own model of blending democracy with Islam. The Istanbul 2020 bid has received full government support, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will fly straight to Buenos Aires from the G20 conference in St. Petersburg to lead the Turkish delegation. Sports Minister Suat Kilic said that the Olympics bid was "as important as Turkey's bid to join the EU," in an interview with the Hurriyet newspaper published on Monday. "When Turkey joins the EU, it will only be Turkey who will be a member but when Istanbul becomes an Olympic city, a new wave of peace might spread to the entire region," he added. Kilic however brushed aside concerns that the recent unrest would harm Istanbul's Olympic chances but added: "It would be much better if we had not experienced this. We had two years without any problems." He said the hosting of the Olympics was not a political matter but a "national cause for anyone who believes in Turkey's strength, regardless of their political viewpoints". Last year, Erdogan said it was Istanbul's turn to land the games. "Istanbul... has never been handed the rights. This is not a fair approach." If Istanbul gets the Games, it could also help the AKP government to rebuild its image, according to Polo. "Hosting the Games is not only profitable for the country but for the government as well, which gets more support, more legitimacy and can also get more election victories," he said. "It's also a good opportunity for a government to justify big public investments that can support its economic growth." Arat said Istanbul's bid was about the "future of our country, the future of our young people". Source: AFP