TURKEY’S REFERENDUM AND ERDOGAN’S POWERS

Ofem Uket argues that whatever the outcome of the referendum, Turkey will remain a divided country

Ahead of the April 16 Turkey’s referendum which seeks a yes vote from citizens where ever they are resident across the globe, critics have condemned President Recep Erdogan’s plot to acquire unprecedented powers to further clamp down on the people.

Turks resident in Turkey and those in foreign land are expected to participate in today’s polls to endorse the position of parliament early this year, granting the president’s extension in office till 2029 and according him emergency powers under Turkey’s transition from parliamentary democracy to a full-fledged presidential system of government.

There are discordant tunes from across senior citizens and high-profile professionals of Turkish extraction on whether or not to give President Erdogan dictatorial powers as approved by parliament and effectively end parliamentary government.

The political situation in Turkey right now is prone to conspiracy theory and suspicion of foreign plots as some top government functionaries of some countries where Turkish citizens are resident are being consulted to create venues for political campaigns and support. Erdogan’s track record of imprisoning and silencing opposition makes a mockery of the electoral system, which may be about to give him unprecedented power.

A sign of this is the reception given to a tweet that might have seemed to the sender to be exceptionally non-controversial. It was sent in Turkish and English by the British ambassador to Ankara, Richard Moore, and read: “Tulips in Istanbul heralding spring. Hooray!” Accompanying it was a picture of a bank of tulips blooming outside the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.

The multi-party democracy that has existed in Turkey since 1946 is being gutted by a mix of imprisonment, intimidation and interference in party affairs. Turkey had military coups in the past, but the current restructuring and purge look far more radical. Even if the political parties were not being crippled by the assault, they would have difficulty in getting their message across. Their media outlets have been taken over or closed down and one television personality who said that he was voting “No” was immediately fired from his job.

The ruling political party is gradually consolidating power to undermine and possibly eliminate all forms of opposition through the instrumentality of government and state resources. However, the magnitude of opposition in Turkey is considered fearless outside of the Hizmet movement which is the only opposition and stumbling block Erdogan has.

His consistent clamp down on the Hizmet and its investment is making Turkish authorities less popular and judgmental in the eyes of the international communities, and the Hizmet sympathisers gradually enjoys the support and sympathy of majority of the countries they reside in Africa and Europe.

No court of competent jurisdiction, security agencies and law enforcement officials have come out to declare that members of Hizmet are terrorists; this allegation only exists within the Turkish agencies under the hypothesis of ‘He who pays the piper detects the tune’.

Turkey’s political and economic influence with other nations have been put in oblivion, considering the intolerance, absence of respect for the rule of law, failed liberties and the lack of enforcement of fundamental rights of citizens living in Turkey and in diaspora.

Turks are compelled to make a Yes vote to the referendum, though many are gunning for No vote at the expense of their jobs and lives if caught by the authorities as being in opposition to truncate the fraudulent process of elections conducted by Turkish electoral commission.

It takes a good deal of cheek to accuse European states of lack of respect for democracy, human rights and freedom when 134,000 people in Turkey have been sacked, including 7,300 academics and 4,300 judge and prosecutors in the nine months since the failed coup in which there is little evidence that any of them knew anything about or were otherwise involved. Some 231 journalists are in jail and 149 media outlets have been shut down, while 95,500 people have been detained and 47,600 arrested under emergency laws.

Mr Erdogan says he would put “No” voters in a symbolic political museum, though many of them must fear a more traditional form of incarceration. But just in case there should be too many potential residents of this museum, the police and local officials have been refusing the opposition permission for rallies and ripping down flags, banners and posters advocating a “No” vote.

Despite the enormous advantages enjoyed by the “Yes” campaign, opinion polls are showing that voters were evenly divided or even that the “Nos” were a little ahead. But opponents of Mr Erdogan and the “executive presidency” he intends to establish are not optimistic about their chances of winning, arguing that whatever voters may do in the polling booth the outcome is likely to be a convincing majority for establishing the new authoritarian system.

Turkey is undemocratic like other states in the Middle East such as Syria and Egypt where parliament and the judiciary are not more than closely monitored supporters’ clubs for the regimes.