Turkey’s dangerous path away from democracy
Authoritarian leaders have long the millions of Turks living in their lands. appreciated the power of fanning fears Never mind that campaigning abroad is of real or perceived enemies to garner illegal under Turkish law, or that Mr. Erdogan popular support. President Recep has already stacked the odds in his Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is good at favor at home by arresting scores of journalists this. He has exploited a conflict with and closing down more than 150 Kurdish insurgents and a failed coup news organizations. Branding Germans to win elections and wage a brutal or the Dutch as Nazis creates yet another crackdown on critics, and now he is external threat that might convince Turkish picking a fight with Europe to rally voters of the need for a tough boss who support for a referendum next month knows how to deal with such foes. on constitutional changes that would Whether his strategy succeeds will essentially give him unfettered power. become clear in the referendum on April The tactic might get him some votes, 16. Under the proposed changes, the but like the powers he seeks, it has president would have the sole authority dangerous consequences for Turkey’s to appoint and dismiss government ministers future. and could dissolve Parliament on any
His pretext for bashing Europe grounds; he would also appoint six of the is that leaders in Germany and the 13 members of the country’s top judicial Netherlands have barred his proxies board, and the others would be elected by from holding campaign rallies among
Parliament, which would most likely be controlled by the political forces of the president.
Mr. Erdogan is aware that this could mark a fateful retreat from the Westernization that has guided Turkey for several decades now. Though Turkey’s accession to the European Union has been on ice for some years now, put there in large part by European leaders reluctant to include a large Muslim nation in their grouping, the agreement signed more than 50 years ago establishing an accession process, along with Turkey’s membership in NATO and other international forums, have signified an intention to embrace the principles of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights.
When he first came to power in 2003 as prime minister, Mr. Erdogan seemed to welcome this direction. Now, sadly, Europe has become his enemy of convenience. At a rally on Saturday, he acknowledged that the referendum could close the doors to the EU. For that reason, he continued, “a ‘yes’ vote is very important … because Turkey is not the stooge of anyone.” As the referendum approaches, the Turks would do well to ask whether they really want to take so dangerous a step backward.