 urged democratic nations around the world to end their silence and take a firmer stand against what it said was #Turkey’s growing authoritarianism under President Erdoğan.){kind=link}
In a strongly worded editorial published on Sunday, The New York Times urged democratic nations around the world to end their silence and take a firmer stand against what it said was Turkey’s growing authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The editorial talked about how Turkey, a key NATO member and a strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, has been steadily sliding away from democratic norms over the past decade.
Over his 22 years in power, Erdoğan has centralized authority, curbed judicial independence, suppressed media freedom and manipulated elections, the editorial board said.
The recent arrest of İstanbul’s popular mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival along with nearly 100 of his associates on “dubious charges,” marks a major escalation in Erdoğan’s crackdown on dissent. As the NYT put it, “Turkey is on the path that Russia has traveled,” where an initially elected leader dismantles democratic institutions to stay in power indefinitely.
İmamoğlu, a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), first rose to national prominence in 2019 when he defeated the candidate of Erdoğan’s party in İstanbul’s mayoral election, not once but twice after the government annulled his initial victory. Since then, he has emerged as a major opposition figure with a reputation for good governance and moderation. In an opinion from prison he wrote for the NYT, İmamoğlu warned: “This is more than the slow erosion of democracy. It is the deliberate dismantling of our republic’s institutional foundations.”
The editorial criticized the global response to these developments as weak.
A short time after İmamoğlu’s arrest, which took place two months after US President Donald Trump assumed office, Trump said of Erdoğan, “I happen to like him, and he likes me,” while many European leaders stayed quiet. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said only that the arrest was “deeply concerning.”
“There are no easy answers, given Turkey’s strategic importance and Mr. Erdogan’s grip on power. But the world’s democracies are getting the balance wrong. They can do more to support Turkey’s people and pressure Mr. Erdogan,” said the NYT.
Drawing attention to Erdoğan’s potential plans to bypass constitutional term limits and remain in power beyond 2028, the editorial said foreign pressure can still influence his calculations. Turkey’s heavy reliance on trade with European countries, especially Germany, provides critical leverage, the NYT claimed.
After İmamoğlu’s arrest, hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets in the largest protests in years, despite facing mass arrests and politically motivated trials. Their courage, the editorial concludes, “deserves more than global silence.”