Erdoğan speaks to crowds at Erzurum Cemal Gursel Stadium. Αλέξης Τσίπρας Πρωθυπουργός/Flickr. Some rights reserved.The constitutional reform in Turkey of 2016 and the conditions under which it is being pushed through recall legal procedures like the Enabling Act 1933 by which the Nazis came to power in Germany in the 1930s. This has been noted by many international and in particular German, Austrian and Swiss media including ‘Die Tagesschau’, ‘Der Standard’ and ‘Neue Zuricher Zeitung’.
In contrast, what remains of the Turkish media (Daily Sabah 2016) tend to argue that the new system resembles the French or US presidential system, an argument often repeated by international media (e.g. The Guardian 2017). Other commentators criticise any comparison of processes in 1933 Germany and 2016 Turkey (e.g. Ayata 2016). However, Neil Gregor (History Today 2017) suggests that such comparative studies can shed light on two contrasting periods. Further to this, I would argue that the analytical categories and lessons learned from the rise of the Nazis, the Holocaust and the Second World War remain crucial for critically examining policy processes with the view to preventing the repetition of any such horrors (also see Jeffrey C. Isaac 2016). Hence the following inventory:
- Turkey’s constitutional reform is prepared following an attempted military coup and the bombing of the parliament sometimes referred to as Turkey's Reichstagsbrand. President Erdogan declared a state of emergency and since 21 July 2016 Turkey is largely governing through emergency decrees. The Nazi Enabling Act was passed following an arson attack on the parliament, ‘Reichstagsbrand’. President Hindenburg on the advice of Hitler issued the ‘Reichstagsbrand decree’ and thus a state of emergency.
