In the run-up to Turkey’s municipal elections on March 30, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that the popular vote would serve as a referendum on his scandal-plagued leadership. With the help of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which centered its campaigning on him, Erdoğan was able to redefine the elections. His opponents blindly played along, hoping that the [...] → Read the full article…
On March 30th the prime minister’s support among Turkish voters will be put to the test, for the first time since the Gezi protests and the corruption probe, in municipal elections. Mr Erdogan has explicitly turned these into a referendum on himself and his party. If AKP does well, which most analysts reckon means winning over 40% of the vote and [...] → Read the full article…
Even if his party manages to scrape by in Turkey’s upcoming municipal elections on March 30, Prime Minister Erdogan has already done irreparable harm to his brand. It is hard to imagine how in any society a Prime Minister caught on tape firing journalists because he does not like their point of view or instructing television stations to stop the [...] → Read the full article…
Erdogan has decided the best way to maximize his vote in Turkey’s first direct presidential election next year is to polarize the electorate. He wants to force Turks to choose between two options: You’re either with Erdogan, or against him. And if you are against him, you are with the old, wooden-headed, military-backed, secularist system and its decadent offspring. ”Those who [...] → Read the full article…
The response of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to this summer’s protest movement in Turkey made clear his worsening authoritarianism. Yet his AKP party was founded on inclusivity and pragmatic compromise. As Turks struggled to grasp the impact of this summer’s protests in Istanbul and other cities across the country, Yeşim Arat, professor of political science at Bogazici University, pointed [...] → Read the full article…
What does Erdogan’s government in Turkey and Sisi’s in Egypt share in common? ‘Nothing’ cannot be correct…Erdogan and Sisi are each fighting their own war on terror, yielding a violence that is no less legal or popular for its circular logics of clarification, writes Ayça Çubukçu. What does Prime Minister Erdogan’s government in Turkey have in common with General Sisi’s in Egypt? [...] → Read the full article…
Neoliberalism, Illegality, and State of Exception in Turkey The Gezi Park protests, and the state response to them, have crystallized larger dynamics in Turkey. These include recent legal changes and their contribution to the institutionalization of neoliberalism, centralization of powers, allegations of cronyism, authoritarianism, and encroachment on professional independence and labor rights. Overall, these protests offer a valuable opportunity to [...] → Read the full article…
ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed protesters Sunday, the tenth day of demonstrations against his government, warning that “even patience has an end.” He gave a series of speeches to supporters in the nation’s capital, Ankara, as well as in the southern city of Adana. “We have been patient. We will be patient, but even [...] → Read the full article…