Turkey’s Fading Democracy

Dr. Alp Aslandogan
Dr. Alp Aslandogan


Date posted: February 11, 2014

ALP ASLANDOGAN

Not long ago, Turkey was considered a model of constitutional democracy in the Middle East. For this reason, President Obama chose Turkey as his first majority-Muslim destination. But this 90-year old democracy is now facing a major crisis. Four corruption investigations that touched the sons of three ministers and the prime minister have sparked massive government reaction, led to the collapse of rule of law and significantly undermined the foundations of Turkish democracy.

Here’s how the shining light of democracy in the Middle East began to fade: On Dec. 17, after a 14-month investigation, Turkish prosecutors and police detained several high-profile, politically-connected individuals after alleged attempts by the interior ministry to interfere with the investigation. Millions in cash were recovered from shoeboxes and bookshelves, along with electronic steel vaults, images, videos, telephone conversations and payment records that implicated these individuals.

In two related investigations, the director of state-owned HalkBank and four ministers are suspected of receiving bribes from an Iranian businessman who has been allegedly aiding Iran bypass international financial sanctions. A third investigation includes evidence of rigging state construction tenders and granting permits for protected historic areas. The fourth investigation, which involves a charity led by the prime minister’s son, was stalled after the lead prosecutor was removed. Since the investigations began, three ministers and five parliamentarians from the ruling AK Party (AKP) have resigned.

That the AKP’s third term is mired in systemic corruption is discouraging for Turkey’s democracy. Even more worrisome, though, is the fact that corruption has led to an authoritarian trend in which those who refuse political obedience are profiled and discriminated against.

Instead of allowing the legal investigation to proceed unimpeded, the government chose to remove Istanbul’s police chief and replace him with a bureaucrat with no relevant experience. It pacified the prosecutor, discredited him with a media smear campaign and then removed him from the case. The interior ministry removed hundreds of police investigators from their posts and required the replacing investigators to inform their politically appointed superiors of any future investigations. Media’s access to the police is also restricted. Online media coverage of legal investigations are threatened with a bill that places websites, blogs and social media under political censorship.

Prime Minister Erdogan has blamed the current investigations as part of an international political conspiracy by the U.S. ambassador, influential preacher Fethullah Gulen, Wall Street Journal, BBC and the “interest lobby.”

Targeting Gulen‘s sympathizers, also known as “camia” or “Hizmet,” is not just convenient; it is strategic. Media elements affiliated with the Hizmet movement speak directly to AKP’s voter base and unlike the civil society groups that AKP managed to endear through various mechanisms, Hizmet movement has maintained its independence. Therefore there is really nothing that stops Hizmet participants from presenting the inconvenient truths about AKP’s elite leadership.

The AKP already has tight control of both the executive and legislative branches. The opposition parties are unable to pass legislation, oppose AKP’s legislation or start a parliamentary investigation against any member of the executive branch. And now, since the corruption investigations, there is a full-scale effort to tame the judiciary.

AKP advisers and parliamentarians have issued tweets and other forms of messages threatening the prosecutors involved in corruption investigations with deadly consequences. A prosecutor in the city of Izmir who was pursuing a graft probe involving a relative of AKP’s mayoral candidate declared that he was threatened by the undersecretary of the justice ministry to halt the investigation or “face the results.”

AKP is also gearing up to pass a legislation that will dramatically increase the powers of the justice minister in the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors, empowering the justice minister to approve or reject investigations of members of the judiciary. This legislation, if enacted, would completely remove the independence of the judiciary and bring it under political control. It has already received strong criticism from the European Union.

All this already undermines the basic democratic tenet of separation of powers. But it gets worse.

Never in Turkish history has a single person or party achieved this level of media subservience. Today, AKP leadership controls Turkish media through an approach of carrots and sticks. Several media groups receive preferential treatment in exchange for AKP-friendly editorial policies. Some of these media organizations were acquired by AKP-friendly businesses through questionable funds and processes. Opposition CHP leader brought the question of whether Prime Minister was personally involved in the transfer of Sabah media group to a friendly business to Turkish parliament.

Media not friendly to AKP, on the other hand, are threatened with intimidation, inspections and fines. These media group owners face similar threats to their other businesses. Columnists have been fired for criticizing the AKP leadership — some of whom described the ongoing owner-censorship publicly.

Another dimension of AKP’s increasingly authoritarian trend is the use of the National Intelligence Service (MIT) to spy on and profile citizens and civil servants. Last June, Turkish newspapers, such as the liberal Taraf daily, revealed draft legislation that would give unprecedented powers to the National Intelligence Service (MIT). While this legislation was not brought to the parliament, reports were published about MIT signing protocols with Ministry of Education and Turkish Airlines to spy on and profile citizens.

On December 4, AKP deputy chairman Huseyin Celik admitted to such profiling and claimed, in an almost comedic fashion, that this was an old habit of MIT that the AKP-appointed intelligence chief was unable to stem. This is unfortunate because for decades, citizens who did not embrace the Kemalist ideology had been profiled and discriminated against and some of the current AKP leaders personally suffered from this policy in the past.

Within the last year, the AKP elite has either implemented or attempted many other undemocratic policies and actions. These include harsh reaction to the peaceful protestors at Gezi Park, attempts to regulate student homes and introducing draft legislation banning prep courses that prepare students for nationwide college placement tests, making it illegal to run math and science tutoring centers.

AKP’s 2011 election manifesto prominently featured a new, civilian-based constitution. The half-hearted effort to draft a new constitution was abandoned after it became clear that the inclusion of a powerful office of presidency was infeasible. Operating under a constitution drafted under the 1980 military junta while the junta members face civilian courts is ironic.

In the face of systemic corruption allegations and mounting evidence, the strategy chosen by AKP elite appears to be to subjugate the judiciary to political control, and hence stifle current corruption investigations and block future ones. In an attempt to justify this blatant assault on the independence of the judiciary, and other authoritarian measures, Gulen-inspired Hizmet movement is used as a scapegoat.

Against mounting criticism of their authoritarian measures, AKP elite’s often-repeated argument that they represent the will of the people is fragile. Free and fair elections require public access to information and the lack of unfair advantage by those in power. In Turkey, public access to information is restricted by media control and censorship. And businesses that are given government contracts are required to return the favor by donating to AKP-designated charities and assist AKP election campaign financially — thus giving AKP an unfair advantage. The intimidation of the judiciary and the constant shuffling of police prosecutors make it nearly impossible to investigate any corruption case that involves members of the AKP leadership or their relatives.

The current trend is toward the hegemony of the executive branch of the government and the situation is regarded as a move away from EU democratic states and toward the authoritarian regimes of the region.

Under normal circumstances, the 58 percent of Turkish population who supported the democratic constitutional amendments of 2010 would punish this trend at the ballot box. In a recent poll conducted face-to-face with 1,545 adults by MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center, 60 percent of those surveyed agreed that the prosecutors were right to proceed with the corruption investigations, versus only 26.5 percent who did not. 90 percent of those surveyed said that they would not support the ruling party if its leaders turned a blind eye to corruption.

These are clear indications that Turkish people, when informed accurately, would send a clear message to their government regarding corruption and authoritarianism. But, with the ongoing intimidation of the judiciary and media censorship, will they get an accurate picture of their government’s performance? Will Turkey be able to overcome this conundrum? If history is any indication, we can keep our faith in the democratic wisdom of Turkish voters.

Source: Huffington Post , February 11, 2014


Related News

They busted the house of a deceased teacher to take her under custody

Parents of Didem took a grief-stricken breath when they saw the police squad holding custody document which is written Didem’s name on it and they said “If you want to take her under custody you should go to cemetery. Didem is dead, my son.”

Reach of Turkey’s Erdoğan spreading like fungus across U.S. – analysis

“Erdoğan’s regime is increasingly using connections with domestic-based U.S. Islamist groups, like Muslim American Society (MAS), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) to exert political influence in the United States,” Anne-Christine Hoff, Dallas associate of the activist group Counter Islamist Grid, said in American Thinker on Sunday.

The last refuge of losers: deporting a journalist

İHSAN YILMAZ I am sure most of our readers know my Today’s Zaman colleague Mahir Zeynalov better than they know me. He is a very accomplished Twitter user. His Turkish twitter account has 57,000 followers and the English one has 87,000 followers. Last year, he was chosen as one of the 10 most effective twitter […]

President Gül hosts Turkish Olympiad students in Ankara

YASİN KILIÇ, ANKARA President Abdullah Gül hosted a group of students coming to Turkey as part of the 11th International Turkish Olympiad, a festival that celebrates the Turkish language and this year brought together 2,000 students from 140 countries around the world, in the capital on Friday. The Turkish Olympiad, which is organized by the […]

Cold Turkey: Erdogan’s withdrawal from democracy

The bizarre, phantom-like failed coup d’etat staged against Erdoğan’s increasingly brutal regime on July 15 last year saw him seize the opportunity to exterminate, imprison and purge tens of thousands of his enemies, real and imagined, within all strata of civil society, the military, government, media, education, health, the judiciary and other institutions.

A Forum On Africa in Turkey (I)

Istanbul was peaceful when we arrived to attend the 29th Abant international forum titled: “Africa: Between Experience and Inspiration”. The event which brought together about 160 participants held between June 28-30, 2013 at a serene and scenic mountain resort of Abantu Buyuk Hotel in Bolu,Turkey.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Peshawar High Court Restrains Federal Government From Deporting Turkish Teachers Of Pak-Turk School Till Dec 1

Latin American firms seek Turkey investments at TUSKON meet

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Is man living in Pennsylvania responsible for Turkey coup attempt?

International Conference on Hizmet Movement in Taiwan

The Turkish “Great Teacher” – Fethullah Gülen and his Amazing Social Reforms

Fethullah Gulen: I am not hiding and not on the run

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News