The leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, speaks to his party supporters during an anti-coup rally in Istanbul,July 23,2016. Petros Giannakouris/Press Association. All rights reserved.Late last December, upon returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia, Turkish President Erdogan was asked by Turkish reporters whether an executive presidential system was possible while maintaining “the unitary structure of the state”. He responded, “There are already examples in the world. You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany.” Following a failed coup d’etat attempt this July, as Erdogan started excluding and imprisoning political rivals, laying the groundwork for authoritarian control, some critics have begun taking the comparison more seriously.
In fact, Erdogan draws on the same conception of politics, drawing on the thinking of Carl Schmitt, the German jurist and political theorist who was a passionate defender of Hitler’s regime. According to Schmitt, politics is based on nothing more than the distinction between “friend” and “enemy”. This concept of politics is not determined by economics and ethical categories. Rather, the state needs to create enemies to constitute itself and to ensure its own survival. Erdogan's politics have much in common with this central premise, as he explained here:
“Democracy, freedom and the rule of law…For us, these words have absolutely no value any longer. Those who stand on our side in the fight against terrorism are our friends. Those on the opposite side are our enemy,” July 16, 2016
