BY İHSAN YILMAZ
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is unlike any other previous anti-democratic figure in Turkey. He has been gradually eroding democracy and dismantling state structures to create an authoritarian one-man regime. The military generals who tried to stage coups or accomplished coups but could not fully control the state must be envying him right now.
Turkish media are almost fully under the control of Erdoğan. With the exception of a few newspapers and TV channels, none of them can freely write or broadcast about Erdoğan’s corruption. Because of threats of heavy tax punishment, influential dailies such as Hürriyet and Milliyet try to be critical of the government but in most cases do not cover serious issues that would harm the Erdoğan regime.
The biggest TV channels, such as Kanal D, Show TV and Star, are almost fully controlled by Erdoğan. The TRT state television channels that are respected, especially by the rural and uneducated sections of society, only propagate the Erdoğan regime. An already weak opposition does not have the chance to convey its messages of new and alternative projects for the country and its criticism of the government is not heard by the people.
According to a recent poll, about 12 percent of voters have never heard of Erdoğan’s new palace, which has 1,150 rooms, let alone the criticism surrounding it. To put it bluntly, the Erdoğan regime has illegitimately destroyed the opposition in Turkey. Yes, it exists but it is little more influential than the ones in Russia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. It is no longer accurate to liken Erdoğan’s ambitions to Putinism; it is becoming clear that he has a Chinese model in mind. That is why anyone who critiques him is quickly denounced as a traitor and a spy working for both the CIA and MOSSAD. This has to be taken very seriously before it is too late. Had a whistleblower not shattered his project, last night his security apparatus would have imprisoned 400 journalists. I think this is telling enough.
Parliament has been impotent for a long time. Because of the country’s Political Parties Law, deputies have to worship the party leader to be re-nominated and this is what most of them do. Moreover, Erdoğan’s corrupt Mafiosi tactics have made sure that almost all his deputies have some sort of weaknesses that would make them liable to blackmail. For instance, many of the deputies or their relatives have become tremendously but illegitimately rich over the last decade. And/or their relatives have been given state jobs without the adequate credentials. And/or they have had extramarital affairs. Erdoğan keeps files of these deputies and makes sure they know this.
Erdoğan has also been eroding the independence of the judiciary. Judges and prosecutors in critical courts are carefully engineered to be either pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) figures or corrupt guys with skeletons in their closet so that they have to obey the Erdoğan regime. Superior courts were exceptions, to a certain extent, but with new legislation, he will appoint hundreds of pro-AKP judges to these courts. The Constitutional Court’s membership will also gradually change since upon their retirement, old members will be replaced according to Erdoğan’s wishes.
Similar to the West’s appeasement strategy when it came to Hitler, Erdoğan’s gradual transformation of a democratic country into tyranny has been largely passively watched by Western observers, Turkey’s allies and Turkey’s White Turkish elite. In a few years’ time, the country can reach a critical point of no return. But since he will not be able to make diverse sections of society succumb to his illegitimate and corrupt will, multiple civil wars may erupt in the country: Kurds versus Erdoğan, Alevis versus Erdoğan, radical Islamists versus Erdoğan, ultra-nationalists versus Erdoğan, etc. It is obvious that in such a turbulent region, an unstable Turkey would pave the way for terrible regional disasters that no power on earth will be able to prevent or stop.
It is high time that the AKP’s wise members and voters, the AKP’s international appeasers and Turkey’s White elite push for the reinstatement of democracy in Turkey as soon as possible.