This article is based on a lecture delivered by the author during the First NORIA Meeting on Turkey held on 19-20 October 2020
The current regime in Turkey is an autocracy, a regime tailor-made for the strong man. This regime can be called Erdoganism. It is a hyper-presidential regime that makes the separation of powers obsolete and operates with a vertical power structure. This term, used by Putin to describe the power architecture in Russia, is perfectly suited to describe the political and institutional architecture of Erdoganism. Certainly a Turkish-style power vertical, much messier, applied more by trial and error. Consequently with arbitrariness and randomness much more present than in classic autocratic regimes.
One of the salient features of Erdoganism is that it is above all a regime of arbitrariness. It is a regime that does not respect its own rules and invents new ones according to the necessities of the situation. The abuse of repression by the judiciary and the disappearance of legal security in general are the most visible consequences. The mass dismissal of teachers and civil servants by simple administrative decision, without official reason and without the possibility of appeal, the appointment of administrators in the place of Kurdish elected mayors but dismissed by the Ministry of the Interior, the imprisonment of lawyers, journalists, and even deputies, are some of the manifestations of this repressive arbitrariness.
