Selahattin Demirtas, centre, and Figen Yuksekdag, to his left, co-leaders of the pro Kurdish Democratic Party of Peoples (HDP) lead a march towards the site of the explosions in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. Burhan Ozbilici/Press Association. All rights reserved.Early on November 4, police raided the homes of the opposition People’s Democratic Party’s (HDP) co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ on terrorism charges. Along with them nine other MPs were detained, while the HDP headquarters was raided by the police. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Whatsapp, now the most reliable sources of news and journalism in Turkey, were restricted or even totally blocked in some provinces of Turkey. The internet was slowed down country-wide.
Turkey’s democracy has had many ups and downs in the past. However, given today’s circumstances, it is no longer possible to name it what Collier and Levitsky famously dubbed a ‘democracy with adjectives’. What we see in Turkey today is a de-facto regime change to hyper-Presidentialism and authoritarian consolidation at full speed. Unsurprisingly, international condemnation and warnings about the state of democracy and the rule of law issued by the EU, the Council of Europe and the US fall on deaf ears.
The EU’s response has been criticised for forsaking the very values on which the EU was established. It is a legitimate claim: the EU has done almost nothing to discourage or prevent the AKP government from crushing the opposition and dissidents, breaching its constitutional principles, the rule of law and European norms and values. In fact, except for issuing warnings every time a group of journalists or dissidents is arrested, the EU has revived its frozen relations with Turkey through the EU-Turkey refugee deal, upgrading the Turkish government to a ‘key partner’ in managing the refugee crisis.
