Turkish president tells Stanford audience, ’this is the age of people’s empowerment’

Abdullah Gul, president of Turkey, answers questions from the audience with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a faculty member at the Graduate School of Business. (Photo: L.A. Cicero)

President Abdullah Gül spoke about leadership, change and sticking to principles, even when they may be unpopular.

By Brooke Donald

"This is the age of people’s empowerment," he said, citing the Arab Spring uprisings and the Occupy demonstrations in New York.

"It is today almost a universally accepted notion that the only source of legitimacy for a political leader is the people’s choice. And every day and everywhere we are seeing increasing involvement of people in decision making," he said.

Gül criticized politicians who relent to public pressure, however, when it results in bad policy for everyone else.

"The leaders might become reluctant to take bold decisions for the common good," he said.

He took Europe’s leaders to task for what he characterized as failing to see the looming economic problems and not taking bold steps to address them. And, he said, there are now growing tendencies across Europe for leaders to become more introverted and to give in to the rise of political extremists.

"This is certainly not a good example of leadership, but petty politics at its worst," he said.

Gül also lamented the ongoing violence in Syria that has resulted in nearly 25,000 refugees fleeing into Turkey. He said Turkey is doing what it can to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people, but the international community hasn’t done enough.