Over the past two years, Western media have
been awash with criticism that Turkey is growing authoritarian, with the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) neglecting democratization
and flouting human rights. Such harsh articles have appeared on Al-Monitor, too. On Feb. 20-21, a conference was
even held in Portugal under the title “The Gezi Protests and Beyond:
Contesting AKP Rule.” It seems some Western quarters are convinced that
the AKP powerhouse must be toppled.
Summary⎙ Print
Statistics from the European Court of Human Rights indicate Turkey’s
current human rights record is better even than the early years of AKP
rule.
From my liberal democratic vintage point, I also see many
mistakes by the AKP government. I, too, believe the AKP is authoritarian
in certain aspects. For instance, it has failed to resolve the
Alevi problem and advance the rights of Alevis. The
state-media relationship remains
very problematic.
There are shortcomings on freedom of expression. Despite government
efforts to resolve the Kurdish problem, Kurdish rights remain
incomplete. The same goes for the rights of Christians and Jews.
Yet, I don’t see a drastic authoritarian shift over the past two
years. The AKP of the 2012-14 period is what the AKP used to be in the
2010-12 period. A Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP) coalition, which may eventually succeed the AKP,
would take Turkey further back. Such a coalition is what the
Gulen movement
wants, because only a weak government will allow the Gulenists to
preserve unchallenged their penetration of the state. Otherwise, they
are widely believed to be facing a looming
Ergenekon-like anti-state investigation for their parallel structure within the state.
Is Turkey really growing authoritarian? Measuring this is quite
difficult, but not impossible. There are certain data we could use,
primarily Turkey’s record at
the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),
the bulwark of basic rights and freedoms, including the number of cases
brought against Turkey, the record of other countries and the nature of
the court’s denunciations of Turkey. Furthermore, we can take up also
the constitutional and legal reforms and other structural changes that
Turkey has introduced to advance its democracy.
Until 2009, Turkey topped the 47 Council of Europe members in terms
of the number of cases brought against it at the ECHR. In 2009, it moved
down to second place behind Russia. In 2013, the statistics show, it
dropped to fifth place behind Russia, Italy, Ukraine and Serbia.
However, Turkey remains on top in terms of the average number of cases
lost per year. Yet, in recent years it has fallen to second place in
this regard. What is important here is the nature of the violations.
On torture, for instance, the ECHR has censured Turkey a total of 279
times, but not even once in 2013. Government interference in the
judiciary has been a major topic in recent weeks. Yet, the number of
cases Turkey lost in 2013 for unfair trials dropped by more than a half
to 15 from the annual average of 31. Turkey has been sentenced seven
times for violating freedom of religion and conscience, but not once in
2013. Sadly, Turkey remained true to style in violating freedom of
expression, getting censured in nine cases. Another important figure is
the number of cases per 10,000 people of a country’s population. In
2012, Turkey held 13th place among the 47 Council of Europe members with
1.2 cases. In 2013, the figure dropped by about 60% to 0.47, moving
Turkey down to 29th place.
All those figures show that Turkey’s human rights record in recent
years has been the best ever, especially with respect to fair trial, the
prevention of torture and the number of cases. And fair trial in
particular is a key indicator of the rule of law, one of the
fundamentals of democracy.
Democratization record
Second, Turkey has introduced significant constitutional, legal and
structural reforms to improve democracy. Standing out among those
efforts is the peace process to resolve the Kurdish conflict, which has
claimed 40,000 lives, shattered internal peace and snagged progress in
democratization and human rights. The process has been begun and
sustained despite various provocations.
Even more important is the latest
democratization package,
unveiled in September and adopted recently in parliament. The package
provided solutions — though partial — to chronic issues and intractable
problems like the headscarf problem, demands for education in mother
tongue (within a limited scope), the right to public meetings and
demonstration, political propaganda in mother tongue and interference in
lifestyles. Most notably, it explicitly criminalized hate speech, a
widespread phenomenon in Turkey and a major threat to social peace.
An even bolder democratization move was the proposal to amend the
electoral system, including the introduction of the narrow constituency
system, but the opposition did not even bother to respond.
And while so many things were being accomplished, what were the
contributions of those who insist that Turkey is growing authoritarian?
Do they have any vision for a democratic Turkey? If they do, has anyone
heard of it?
An analysis of their rhetoric and actions and a study of their
political, social and historic background will reveal a great
discrepancy with what they say and write today. Do their past actions
and rhetoric amount to anything more than conflict, chaos, the
continuation of the Kemalist diktat, a tutelage mentality and oppressive
methods? They raised objections to the democratization package, the
criminalization of hate speech and the peace process, and continue to
voice their objections today. They nourish hopes for the failure of the
peace process, seeking constantly to undermine it.
In short, those quarters have fed on diktat ontologically and
epistemologically, building their ideology on totalitarianism. And when
they speak of authoritarianism today, it amounts to nothing but an
oxymoron. There is much to be done for democracy and freedoms, but such
oxymoronic attempts are backfiring and only consolidating the masses
behind Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
