In post-referendum Turkey, it is not just Erdoğan and his supporters but the opposition as well who refuse to recognize their adversaries as legitimate – an explosive formula.
Even when it is obvious that a given regime is a dictatorship or a particular election an utter sham, one has to act as if it is not in order to reproduce the democratic system.
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.
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.
The motto 'we will let neither the assailants nor the sufferings they have inflicted upon us determine our future' seems quite fitting for both past and current generations of Turkish thinkers. Is this the only way to keep one’s sanity in an open-air nuthouse?
Turkey’s rule of law is under severe strain and its judiciary is no longer independent. Halil Gurhanli explores why fears of a return to military command should not be underestimated amid corruption, escalating authoritarianism and embittered rivalry between the ruling AKP party and the Hizmet Mov
