Opinion: Turkey's Democracy Had Already Fallen
On the 16th of April it became official; Turkey is now moving towards a more executive and autocratic leadership style, however this has been the case for years. The recently held Turkish referendum was expected to be a much more sweeping victory for the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however he and his party barely won; with just 51% of voting Turks choosing to support the changes.
By revising and repealing 76 articles within Turkey’s constitution, the referendum changes the political face of the nation; it will remove the role of prime minister and give executive power to the president, who can now appoint judges, high ranking government officials and ministers freely. The new president will find it just easy to strip power from non-elected political opponents, which threatens abuse of power.
The amendments also allow for the issuing of decrees, executive orders and states of emergency. This however will not be a change for the Turkish public. Following the attempted coup in 2016, a sure sign or public unrest, Erdogan cracked down, over 230,000 public servants and military personnel were stripped of position or jailed. 140 radio, television and newspaper outlets have since been terminated, most were relatively secular and opposed to the hardline populist conservatism of Erdogan.
The most recent referendum is just an attempt to solidify the recent autocratic and absolute rule of Turkey, however democracy had a chance to speak; 48.7% of voting Turks opposed the changes, a much louder response than what Erdogan expected. On top of this response, many allegations of potential rigging have emerged, even a video showing a man stuffing ballots into a box, questioning the validity of the referendum.
Erdogan, like it or not, has been the de facto Dictator of Turkey for the last few years; silencing opposing voices and issuing executive orders extend beyond his role as president. His campaign slogan, “For Security, for Stability”, holds more so with his leading style than Turkey's future.
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