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Dark Times, The pres­id­ent is throt­tling Turkey’s Democracy - Economist Mag 29-03-2025

The document discusses the erosion of democracy in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, particularly following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was seen as a strong opposition figure. Erdogan's government has increasingly suppressed dissent and manipulated the political landscape to maintain power, with international reactions to Imamoglu's arrest being largely muted. The article suggests that only the Turkish citizens can challenge Erdogan's authoritarianism, despite the growing discontent and protests against his regime.

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3 views2 pages

Dark Times, The pres­id­ent is throt­tling Turkey’s Democracy - Economist Mag 29-03-2025

The document discusses the erosion of democracy in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, particularly following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was seen as a strong opposition figure. Erdogan's government has increasingly suppressed dissent and manipulated the political landscape to maintain power, with international reactions to Imamoglu's arrest being largely muted. The article suggests that only the Turkish citizens can challenge Erdogan's authoritarianism, despite the growing discontent and protests against his regime.

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5/20/25, 6:00 PM Dark times

Dark times
The pres­id­ent is throt­tling Tur­key’s demo­cracy
The Economist (EU) · 29 Mar 2025

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN has been run­ning Tur­key for 22 years, and has spent much of that
time erod­ing its demo­cracy. His gov­ern­ment con­trols the courts, the secur­ity appar­atus and
almost all the media. Yet until last week Tur­key remained a place where the oppos­i­tion could,
in the­ory, win elec­tions, and occa­sion­ally did, at least at the local level. Since the arrest on
March 19th of Ekrem Imamo­glu, the mayor of Istan­bul and Mr Erdogan’s strongest rival,
along with many of his asso­ciates, that may no longer apply (see Europe sec­tion).

Some have thought Mr Erdogan an aspir­ing dic­tator ever since the 1990s, when as an Islam­ist
he cam­paigned against Tur­key’s sec­u­lar­ism. He once called demo­cracy a tram you get off
when you reach your stop. However, his first years in power were reas­sur­ing. It was only later
that he cracked down on NGOs and used trumped-up pro­sec­u­tions to attack oppon­ents. Mr
Erdogan crushed Kur­d­ish mili­tias in a mil­it­ary cam­paign in 2015 and jailed peace­ful Kur­d­ish
dis­sid­ents. The next year, after foil­ing a coup attempt, he imprisoned tens of thou­sands of
people, only some of whom had played a part in the putsch, and muzzled the media. Still, the
Turk­ish pres­id­ent con­sist­ently beat the oppos­i­tion in elec­tions that were largely free, if far
from fair.
Mr Imamo­glu’s arrest marks a turn­ing-point. For months the cha­ris­matic mayor has led Mr
Erdogan in opin­ion polls for the next pres­id­en­tial elec­tion, due in 2028 or before. Last year
his Repub­lican People’s Party ( CHP) shocked Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Devel­op­ment ( AK)
party by beat­ing it in local elec­tions. Years of eco­nomic mis­man­age­ment and cor­rup­tion
scan­dals have sapped Mr Erdogan’s pop­ular­ity. Mr Imamo­glu’s emer­gence as the CHP’s
leader prom­ised a chance of a demo­cratic trans­fer of power. But his impris­on­ment, on
charges of cor­rup­tion that experts con­sider base­less, sug­gests that Tur­key’s pres­id­ent would
rather end demo­cracy than risk los­ing.
Mr Erdogan seems to have picked this moment shrewdly. Don­ald Trump has shown little
interest in other coun­tries’ demo­cratic stand­ards. Europe is pre­oc­cu­pied by the war in
Ukraine and its dif­fi­culties with Mr Trump. Indeed, the Europeans need Tur­key’s help and are
court­ing Mr Erdogan to sup­ply troops for a poten­tial peace­keep­ing force in Ukraine. As
Amer­ica steps back from Europe, Tur­key’s army, the second­largest in NATO, is more vital
than ever. And since the migrant crisis of 2015-16, the European Union has relied on Tur­key
to keep waves of refugees away from its bor­ders.
For all these reas­ons, the inter­na­tional reac­tion to Mr Imamo­glu’s arrest has been meek. The
European Com­mis­sion merely urged Tur­key to “uphold demo­cratic val­ues”, though France
and Ger­many made tougher state­ments. Europe could do more. Greece and Bul­garia have
toughened their bor­ders, mean­ing that Tur­key can no longer so eas­ily threaten to flood the
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5/20/25, 6:00 PM Dark times

EU with migrants. Mr Erdogan still appears to value Tur­key’s long-dormant can­did­acy for EU
mem­ber­ship. He has also wanted to broaden his coun­try’s cus­toms union with the EU; the
bloc should make it clear that is out of the ques­tion while Mr Imamo­glu remains behind bars.
Yet out­side powers can­not stop Mr Erdogan from turn­ing Tur­key into an auto­cracy. Only its
cit­izens can do that. Some of them may be alarmed by his grow­ing author­it­ari­an­ism, oth­ers
by the worsen­ing pro­spects for the eco­nomy as investors lose con­fid­ence that reformers will
be able to make their voices heard. The hun­dreds of thou­sands brav­ing police bat­ons to
protest against Mr Imamo­glu’s arrest have the demo­cratic world’s sym­pathy. Alas, they will
not get much else. ■

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