The Riot To Remain Silent
Issue #246
Some days just make you want to run for the hills, like this cow in Karabük. But if our favorite Turkish meme is right, it can always be worse.
That means there’s snow better time than now. So, enjoy the snow day if you’re in Turkey and get halay on life while you can.
In this week’s recap:
Sweeping detentions hit Turkey
Van trustee tests peace process
Domestic and diplomatic wraps
Hotel spa shuttered in ancient cistern
Also from us this week:
Meclis recap has launched! Check the first and second issues on Tr Türkçe
Çınar Özer reports on the vague new cybersecurity bill in Turkish parliament
In Friday's Economy recap, Azra Ceylan will cover the growing TÜSİAD troubles
JD Vance’s Munich speech is still reverberating in world capitals. So much so, Erdoğan pretty much borrowed a few lines while criticizing the CHP Wednesday.
“What matters to us is not what the chorus of the incompetent says, but what our people say. What matters to us is the thought, opinion and general views of our people,” Erdoğan said at the AKP’s parliamentary group meeting.
The messaging is presented as pro-democracy, though it clearly favors some people’s democratic rights more than others. The same is true for the latest round of detentions, investigations and muffling of non-conformist views in Turkey.
To start small, more than a dozen students were suspended from Boğaziçi University for protesting a café this week. Then, an investigation was launched into the judge who released jailed talent manager Ayşe Barım.
Moving up, İstanbul Mayor and potential presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu now faces more than 20 years in prison after the latest charges of “attempting to influence an expert witness.”
And widening the scope, 282 people across 51 provinces were detained on suspected terror links, according to a statement Tuesday by Interior Min. Ali Yerilkaya. Over the course of five days, Turkish authorities detained leftist political figures, academics and journalists – two of which have contributed to Turkey recap.
The mass detentions came as 10 opposition officials were detained Friday for their involvement in the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK), a legal umbrella organization of leftist and pro-Kurdish groups.
Prosecutors claim the detained municipal officials were part of the “urban consensus” electoral strategy between CHP and DEM Party, in which the former ran candidates unopposed by the latter in specific municipal districts. Authorities claim the PKK helped organize the strategy.
Hürcan Aslı Aksoy, head of the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS Network), said the ongoing pressure on opposition figures and stifling of dissent is likely linked to the Kurdish peace talks (more below).
“I think the government is trying to repress as much as it can from all sides to silence voices against the process,” she told Turkey recap, adding the imprisonment of Zafer Party chair Ümit Özdağ “is a good example of that because the very nationalist part of society, which is quite a large part of the Turkish society, is uncomfortable with the Kurdish initiative.”
Aksoy also noted the mid-term trajectory for Turkish politics points to constitutional amendments under the ruling coalition. In this light, she said the current dynamics could also help Erdoğan set the stage for additional maneuvers following the outcome of the Kurdish negotiations.
“He has to change the constitution to be able to be a candidate again,” she said. “And if you repress everyone, then you have a higher [chance] to change the constitution.”
“They are sending the message to different parts of society or ideological groupings that the government is repressive and strong and can do whatever they want,” Aksoy added.
Democracy dies in the ateşkes: Van trustee tests peace process
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