By Deniz Torcu
On November 1st, Turkey voted for the second time in five months. The Islamist right-wing AKP managed to increase its votes by a margin of nearly 10% and, thus, secured nearly 50% of the votes, whilst the secular centre-left CHP gained 25%. The clear losers of the elections are the pro-Kurdish left-wing HDP and the nationalist right-wing MHP, both of whom have lost an important number of their voters to the AKP.
The results suggest that the AKP will be governing alone, once again. As a direct result, rumours of amending the constitution to create a presidential system are back on the street.
Having always struggled between the Eastern-Western identity mix, Turkey is clearly showing signs of Stockholm Syndrome, where victims express empathy for their perpetrators, since some of the highlights of the AKP’s accomplishments over the past decade have been as follows:
- Journalists are persona non grata: Becoming increasingly authoritarian, the AKP government has been cultivating an atmosphere of self or forced censure which, in the case it is not obeyed, ushers in harsh reactions from the authorities. The number of detained journalists in Turkey has been rising so much that during 2012 and 2013, Turkey outpaced countries like Iran, China and Russia and became the leading country of detained and imprisoned journalists by imprisoning 49 journalists in 2012, 40 in 2013 and 32 in 2014.
- Freedom of expression is a blast from the past: Although constitutionally granted, freedom of expression has been a sore subject for all opposition parties to the government ever since the AKP took power. In recent years, dozens of intellectuals have been imprisoned. The 2013 Gezi Protests, which can clearly be identified as a clear example of the lack of this particular right, were harshly repressed by excessive use of force by the police, leaving an aftermath of 11 deaths, 8,000 injuries and 3,000 arrests. Last year, Turkey made up 60% of the global share of Twitter removal requests, and came in second to India in the rankings for Facebook bans and removal requests.
- Religious freedom is a sham: While the current constitution protects religious freedom, in practice the non-Sunni populations have all been suffering their share of different forms of repression. The largest Muslim group in the country, the Alevis, who make up 25% of the entire population, still lack the protected status and are still not recognized as an official religious group. Meanwhile, a wave of anti-Semitism has been growing so strong that most of the synagogues are forced to contract security services to protect their temples. Furthermore, the lack of respect towards the Orthodox Christian minority is reflected in Mr. Erdogan’s infamous “pardon me but how dare they call me an Armenian or even a Greek” gaffe, which created a tsunami of protests on social media throughout the country.
- Domestic violence has reached its boiling point: Being a woman in Erdogan’s Turkey is getting tougher and tougher every day. In 2014, nearly 300 women were murdered by domestic violence in the country. Growing even more conservative and non-tolerant, the perpetrators who are encouraged to protect the decency of their families by the government genuinely believe that women who do not obey deserve to die. The rise of violence against women has been over 30% in the last decade. Last year, a 20-year university student who resisted rape was stabbed to death and set on fire by the three men who tried to rape her.
- Suicide bombers are here, and they cannot be arrested until they act on it: What sounds like a joke is actually a quote from Prime Minister Davutoglu, when asked about why the government would not arrest the list of ISIS suicide bombers that are known to have infiltrated the country. Bombings in Suruc and Ankara have left more than 130 individuals dead and hundreds more injured. In response to the rising insecurity in the country, President Erdogan declared that if given the 400 deputies that he had wanted in June, none of this would be happening, thus further installing a feeling of terror within the country.
The list goes on. Built on secular and republican values, Turkey is now closer than ever to shifting to an even more radical and repressive regime, where it is none other than the president himself who polarizes society to its very core and feeds on the mutual hatred created on both sides. The lengths to which Mr. Erdogan will go to obtain more power has no limits, and half of the population seems to be enamoured by their caudillo who still has the blood of hundreds on his very own hands.
