More than a century ago, in 1908, the Young Turks revolutionary movement in the Ottoman Empire played a role in the democratization and modernization of Turkey. It ultimately led to the establishment of a constitutional government and initiated reforms that paved the way for a secular and democratic nation.
By a strange quirk of destiny, today, a century and more later, a new generation of Young Turks is leading a mass agitation in Turkey, demanding the ouster of the government of the elected President Tayyip Erdogan. The agitators see his regime as increasingly authoritarian. Although he began his political career as a staunch nationalist, over time, his nationalist populism degenerated into authoritarianism.
In March, mass demonstrations erupted first in Istanbul and then spread to other cities, Ankara, Izmir, Konya, etc., after a popular opposition figure, Ekrem Imamoglu, the Mayor of Istanbul, was put behind bars pending trial on corruption charges.
Unlike older generations who remember the heavy crackdown on the 2013 anti-government Gezi Park protests, today’s young protesters say they are undeterred by the risks.
The Dissidents
The story of the current mass protests throughout the country revolves around Ekram Imamoglu, the popular Mayor of Istanbul, whom Erdogan sees as a potent rival for the 2028 presidential election.
However, the dislike for Erdogan’s authoritarian style of governance can be traced to earlier years of his government, particularly the 2013 demonstrations, which started at Istanbul’s Gezi Park and quickly spread nationwide.
Young protesters carried banners reading, “We’re the children of the ‘raiders’ who have now grown up,” – a reference to the term Erdogan used for Gezi Park demonstrators. Like its reactions to earlier protests, the state authorities have been dealing rather harshly with the current mass demonstrations.
The Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, a key opposition leader, is a long-time rival of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He was accused of corruption, removed from office by the interior ministry, and sent to the infamous high-security Silivri prison on the edge of Istanbul.
Incidentally, this happened the same day his party officially declared him a presidential nominee for the next presidential election (2028). Many upright media personalities, and the student community in particular, considered the arrest a clear example of authoritarianism and abuse of the democratic rights of an opposition party.
People believe that charges of corruption against the mayor are concocted. He is also accused of hobnobbing with dissident Kurdish groups who have always been at loggerheads with the regime in Ankara.
Hundreds of thousands of people from different professions have been joining anti-regime demonstrations—workers, lawyers, media persons, businessmen, shopkeepers, and most of all, young students from various educational institutions.
Erdoğan has frequently lashed out at the protestors, maligning them as leading “a movement of violence” and accusing the opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), of “shielding those who attack police with stones and axes,” pointing to more than 120 police officers injured during demonstrations.
A week after the mayor’s detention, Istanbul prisons were full, and those rounded up at protest rallies have been transferred to facilities outside the city, the opposition alleges.
The recent wave of arrests targeted protesters, journalists who covered the demonstrations, municipal workers, and even the lawyer for Imamoglu. Last week, members of a teaching union were put under house arrest pending trial after they stopped work in solidarity with protesting students.
Erdogan’s Antics
Turkish voters have accused Erdogan of irregularities in the presidential elections of 2023. However, the question is what he has been selling to his voters and countrymen after winning the third term in office. He has often spoken of Turkey’s grandeur as the Ottoman Empire, only to serve the sentiments of ultra-nationalists among his opponents.
A noticeable posture that distinguishes Erdogan among the West Asian and Arab leaders is his subtle ambition to wrest the leadership of the Islamic world from the hands of the Saudi monarchs. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have seldom enjoyed cordial relationships, perhaps owing to the competition for the leadership of the Sunni Muslim world.
In the aftermath of the Islamic resurgence and Arab Spring, Erdogan tried to form a clique of Sunni states as a bulwark against the nascent domination of the Saudi monarchy. Pakistan and Malaysia were the other two prominent Sunni-majority countries that formed the clique. They later managed to rope in Iran also.
However, a threat by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to Imran Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, forced him to back out, and, in this way, the clandestine attempt of a conspiracy against the Saudi monarchy was dissolved. Erdogan’s dream of heading the Muslim ummah was shattered.
Erdogan committed some more mistakes in assuming the leadership of the Muslim ummah. For example, he converted the historical monument of Aya Sofya, also known as the Hagia Sophia, into a mosque in 2020. This historical monument in Istanbul, Turkey, has served as a cathedral, a mosque, and a museum. It’s a significant architectural and historical landmark, renowned for its Byzantine architecture and the role it played in both Christian and Islamic history.
In the political field, he began supporting the Islamic religious extremists and jihadists from wherever they were. He strictly declined to condemn terrorist acts, especially those carried out by the Muslim jihadists. He suddenly came out in his addresses to the UN General Assembly against India on the Kashmir issue.
Not only that, he offered facilities to Kashmiri Muslim students to seek admission to Turkish educational institutions where they had the freedom to spread anti-India propaganda.
After the August coup in Bangladesh, in which the elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted, and the US deep state protégé was installed as the executive chief, Erdogan was quick to provide the imposter’s regime with its cutting-edge drones reported to have been deployed along the border with West Bengal.
Conclusion
The world is closely watching the fast-spreading unrest among the masses in Turkey, particularly its youth. Turkey is a member of NATO and is also struggling to gain EU membership. At the same time, Erdogan has also been portraying himself as an outstanding leader of the Muslim community.
All these appendages demand that Turkey be strongly disposed towards strengthening secular and democratic dispensation in the country. Putting opposition leaders behind bars is not a solution to political dissent, especially when a society comprises multi-ethnic and multi-cultural entities.
The Turkish nation has long rejected authoritarianism. President Erdogan knows it better than anybody else.
- Prof. KN Pandita (Padma Shri) is the former director of the Center of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University.
- This article contains the author’s personal views and does not represent EurAsian Times’ policies/views/opinions in any way.
- The author can be reached at knp627 (at) gmail.com
