Democracy is Dying in Turkey

Last week there was a referendum in Turkey on whether or not to grant President Recep Tayipp Erdogan incredible political powers. It passed with 51.8 percent of the Turkish population voting in favor of it.

Erdogan has proven to be a very authoritarian figure during his presidency.

In the United States there is a system of checks and balances in the government between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, however, in Turkey the military is the biggest check against the president. Earlier this year a segment of the military attempted to execute a coup d’etat to remove Erdogan from the presidency. When that coup failed, Erdogan used it as an excuse to imprison 47,000 political opponents from the military, judiciary, etc. 11,000 of those were school teachers who were not deemed “loyal” enough to Erdogan.

Recently, Erdogan has cracked down hard on criticism from journalists and comedians, going so far as to file lawsuits against comedians as far away as Germany that criticize him. He even imprisoned a Turkish citizen for posting a meme comparing Erdogan to Lord of the Rings character Gollum.

However, until last week there was an illusion of democracy in the Republic of Turkey.

That changed when the referendum relinquished unto Erdogan the keys to absolute power.

The referendum would allow Erdogan to rule until 2029 with greatly enhanced powers. He would be allowed to appoint and fire vice presidents at will, appoint ministers, appoint judges, remove the prime minister’s office, declare states of emergency, create laws without parliamentary approval or even dissolve parliament.

This power grab has earned Erdogan the nickname “sultan” Erdogan, as Erdogan’s powers are now that dictator. It is clear that the Turkish people gave their Republic over to a power-hungry, egotistical and dangerous person.

As Turkey is a member of NATO and a close ally of the U.S. and Western European nations, we even have troops stationed there, there are now significant questions about what the relationship between the West and “sultan” Erdogan’s Turkey will look like.

What happened in Turkey last week should be a warning to the rest of the free world, what happened in Turkey can happen here too.