Erdoğan and his cabinet have represented their win as ‘certain victory’ against all oppositional political movements. But this is not the whole reality.
The events of the past three months threw a stark light on the way the AKP government and Gülenists used the justice system in the past for common political ends. The result has been a clear erosion of the rule of law. Turkey’s voters deserve better than that.
The fear of possible military coups have never left the collective imaginary of all forms of Turkish public, including the conservative constituency.
In line with the AKP government’s rudimentary understanding of “democracy” that considers it synonymous with elections, Erdoğan has reiterated countless times that the solution to all problems, including the allegations against his government, lay in that holy of holies: the Ballot Box.
If there is going to be a serious discussion about whether the AKP’s electoral supremacy has triggered authoritarian tendencies, the starting point has to be the recognition that such practices can co-exist with a representative, democratic system.
People in Turkey are being forced to see the world as a zero-sum game between Berkin and Burakcan, to embrace one and condemn the other. Erdoğan is trying his absolute best to pull as many voters as possible into his nightmare where the "terrifying" presence of Gezi is most deeply felt.
Turkey’s campaign for EU membership has revolutionized funding for its civil society, but there is still a long way to go. A contribution to the openGlobalRights debate on Funding for Human Rights. Türkçe
Political life in Turkey is increasingly undemocratic and authoritarian. How can this institutional weakness be overcome?
This is a negotiation between Erdogan’s neoliberal and individualist Turkey, and a Kurdistan where communal threads, both radical and conservative, run deep. But Gezi and the Kurdish movement stand on the same side in AKP's divided nation and people keep coming to protest.
