The world could soon lose it's only democratic power in the Middle East with the recent corruption by Turkey's Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan first came to power in 2002 as a part of the Justice and Development Party (JDP), a new party at the time. After Turkey's dysfunctional government throughout the 1990's, Erdogan's fresh face was a welcoming site. He and his party campaigned for democracy, development, and human rights, creating the perfect platform that the Turkish people needed. After being elected Prime Minister, Erdogan created a "Muslim Democracy" by improving Turkey's economy, expanding rights and creating a model for democracy in the region. The "Muslim Democracy" reigned for twelve years, but authoritarian changes became obvious nearly a year ago.
Fevzi Bilgin, Executive Director of the Rethink Institute, a nonprofit political research group, came to OU to speak about what is happening in Turkey, and what we can expect in the near future.
Bilgin said, “Going into the elections, JDP was strong, everything was okay, and we were going to see another electoral victory that JDP was used to. But, [the corruption charges] changed everything in a very dramatical manner, and there is no turning back.”
Since December 17, the government has been trying to deflect the charges by doing two things: First, they are taking nondemocratic and controversial actions and obstructing the judicial process. Then, they moved on to redesign the Judicial branch. Last week, Turkey passed a law that brought the Judicial branch under executive control, and a lack of separation of powers is very detrimental to a democratic society. The government has also taken measures to reduce all press freedoms, taking all eight newspapers and 15 television stations under government control and using them as a "mouthpiece" for Erdogan. Turkey is also controlling its citizens' social media outlets, removing any tweets or posts that criticize the government, and recently have tried to ban the outlets completely.
In order to justify their actions, the government is maintaining that everything that is happening to them, such as the corruption charges and criticism, are all part of an international plot. Turkey constantly shifts the blame to foreign powers such as Israel, Europe, the Vatican and the United States. The government tells its people that all of these countries are jealous of Turkey's rising power and are doing whatever they can to stop them.
Moving forward, according to Bilgin, the only way for the Prime Minister to be removed from office is if he causes himself to be removed. If he continues with his recent actions, Turkey will become an authoritarian country. In order for Erdogan to continue his reign, he and the JDP must maintain the majority of the vote in this next election. If this doesn’t happen, the party could split and create multiple factions, allowing for the possibility of a new Prime Minister. However, with the popularity of the JDP party and the Turkish people seeing Erdogan as a sort of savior, it isn't likely that he will lose this election.
Fevzi Bilgin outlines Turkey’s recent corruption allegations.
AUDIO: Tyler Jones, runtime 1:37
