How Kemal Atatürk – founder of modern Turkey, the man who transformed the decrepit Ottoman monarchy into a modern secular republic – must be “rolling over in his grave”, Jonas Roth said in New Zurich newspaper (Zurich).
Last week, Turkish riot police stormed the headquarters of the CHP, the social democratic party founded by Atatürk in 1923, to flush out the party’s current leader, Özgür Özel. For three days, Özel and a group of party officials had barricaded themselves inside the building to protest a highly controversial court ruling that had just ordered Özel to step down, saying there had been voting irregularities at the CHP party congress that elected him leader in 2023.
Using batons, tear gas and rubber bullets, police rushed to evict him; Özel appeared to address the enthusiastic crowd outside, then led a march to the Parliament building.
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“More unbeatable”
It is not difficult to detect the hand of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan behind all this. For 13 years, from 2010 to 2023, the CHP led by its former leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroglu, proved an ineffective opposition, losing every election, local and national, to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). But under Özel, the CHP transformed into a political force capable of ending Erdogan’s 23-year rule.
Thus, the fact that the judiciary, which Erdogan has made his tool, should now have ordered that Özel be replaced by the eternal loser Kılıçdaroglu, speaks for itself. The repression against the CHP began in earnest after inflicted a “historic defeat” on the AKP in the 2024 local elections, Ecehan Balta said in Xekinima (Athens). Holding Erdogan responsible for the economic crisis which had seen inflation exceed 80%, voters turned en masse to Özel’s party, which won 35 provinces against 24 for the AKP. It was a hard blow for the president, a sign that his political machine, for all its influence over state institutions and the media, was “no longer unbeatable.”
And since then, hundreds of CHP officials have been arrested, including Ekrem Imamoglu, the popular mayor of Istanbul, arrested last March on the same day he was chosen as his party’s next presidential candidate.
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Indeed, Turkey, now devoid of a real opposition, is closer than ever to “one-man rule”, said The economist. Özel could try to found a new party, but without the CHP’s “powerful brand” behind him, he is unlikely to succeed. Regardless, Erdogan is expected to call snap elections before the next scheduled vote in May 2028. In doing so, he would exploit a loophole that allows him to run again if he does not fully complete his current presidential term, which according to the constitution should otherwise be his last.
But all hope is not lost, Dogan Ertugrul said on Turkish minute. Imprisoning your main challenger and sowing chaos in your party’s ranks is not a sign of strength, but of insecurity.
And these risky policy measures could well backfire. Look at the Gen Z-led protests that have erupted across the country since Imamoglu’s arrest. They are still as strong and worry Erdogan, said Giorgio Brizio in The Republic (Rome). The same day the police raided the CHP offices in Ankara, thousands of students and staff organized a demonstration at Bilgi University in Istanbul, a bastion of liberal thought that the president had just closed. In scenes “unthinkable” just a few years ago, police stormed the campus, targeting protesters with batons and pepper spray. Many students were arrested; but they held firm and, soon after, Erdogan issued a decree to reopen the university. The students’ victory is clear proof that Erdogan is not invincible.
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