Law, Power, and Justice

Friday 14 July 2023

For over a year, our primary international interest has been Ukraine, but after watching a number of Trukish films on Netflix, and reading about the possibility of a fundamental shift toward democracy in Spring elections, we watched closely as the presidential and legislative votes to came in.

It seemed, there was a real possibility.  After more than two decades of Erdogan’s increasingly autocratic rule, the economy in Turkey had hit the bottom.  Basic goods were unaffordable for regular people.  An earthquake in February 2023 killed tens of thousands of people and Erdogan’s government failed to adequately respond to the disaster.  Part of the reason so many people lost their lives was shoddy governmental enforcement of housing codes for residential buildings.  There was hope a vote could oust Erdogan. 

But a media almost completely controlled by the government hid the true extent of the damage.  And, even though Erdogan’s rivals for the first time combined into one opposition party, they could not defeat him.

As Halil Karaveli (7/14/23) wrote in Foreign Affairs, even though many see Erdogan as more powerful than ever, are just resigned to “waiting for the longtime ruler’s retirement,” there is an alternative.

Karaveli argues that Erdogan’s most recent rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, even though heads the social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), he sought to defeat Erdogan by running to Erdogan’s right, “competing on political terms set by the president.”

“He promised to preserve the regime’s hard-line policies against Kurdish elected representatives. It is, therefore, little wonder that he was soundly defeated; he never offered an ideological alternative to the country’s frustrated citizens.”

Any effective opposition proposing to restore Trukish democracy must embrace progressive causes instead of campaigning on conservative ones.  And, the opposition must build a viable labor movement.   In short, “…to take on the Erdogan regime, the Turkish opposition needs to turn resolutely to the left.”

As Karaveli notes, this will not be an easy task.  Erdogan has subjected the left to severe state oppression and mobilized a religious and nationalist identity politics to give the right the upper hand.

Leftists stood up against Turkey’s military rulers in the early 1970’s and brought democracy back to the country.  They could do it again.

This is a really interesting article.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/turkey/how-save-turkish-democracy

In case you are interested in sampling some of Turky’s astoundingly good TV series:

Black Money Love (2014-2015) Warning, this is addictive.

Ethos (2020) Psychiatric sessions in Istanbul.

The Tailor (2023)

Additional Notes:

• Erdogan lifted a veto this week on Sweden joining NATO.
• Zelensky was given a warm welcolm in Istanbul.
• There is fear in Moscow that Russia’s war against Ukraine has undermined one of Moscow’s most valued relationships.
• (See Washington Post)