Context

The overall domestic context following the full defeat of the old regime in Turkey, and the main contours of the Islamist (‘Islamo-nationalist’, Millî Görüş) populism now in full swing, are described in this chapter. The discussion looks into the mood in the pro-government circles, with some emphasis on the Islamist speculations on democracy—terrifying to the secular masses—and the effective rule by policy, rather than law, enabled by the growing cult of Erdogan. This chapter also describes the spectacular fall out between the government and the former allies, who strongly shared in the power through the new bureaucracy, the Gulen cult. One centrifugal factor detected in portraying the setting is the formal commitment to the human rights protection system in Europe, which, paradoxically, acquired greater intensity during the regime change in a desperate attempt on the part of the government to by-pass the former centres of power.

What Changed?

This chapter provides an outline of the change that took place in Turkey between 2007 and 2011, signalling a historic shift in the use of power in the country, long controlled by a staunch and virtually autonomous bureaucracy, both military and civilian, and known as ‘the state’, in the face of the chronically fragile democratic politics, forming ‘the government’. The time-honoured identity politics of the very bureaucracy, centred on ‘Westernisation’ as a policy incentive, was deftly appropriated by the ruling AKP via newly tightened links with the European Union to transform the settled centre-periphery relations often considered to be pivotal to Turkish politics, and reconfigure access to power. The chapter details the gradual fall of the bureaucracy—that is, the military, the higher education, and the system of high courts—and recounts the basic developments in foreign policy and on the domestic scene during and immediately after the change.

Conclusion

This chapter muses generally on the regime change in Turkey, its potentialities as well as perils, giving thought in the light of the discussion in the foregoing chapters to a genuine and lasting idea of change against the ostensibly uninterrupted flow of ‘desire’, which, in the sense used by Girard, may have ‘mimetically’ kept rendering the actors in Turkey’s political culture into mere ‘clones’ of each other, despite the apparent cleavages between them on the surface. The chapter also revisits Turkey’s Middle East policy under Davutoğlu, the crisis with the downing of a Russian jet in 2015, the Kurdish policy in the aftermath of the failed ‘settlement process’, the jihadist carnage in the greater region and the response of the local Islamists, and the likelihood of a more dramatic change in the regime under Erdogan that would do away with secularism altogether, as increasingly feared by the republican opposition.

Everyday Atrocities

The chapter is on some routine issues in Turkey, mostly ignored, if not necessarily exacerbated, by the exceptionally strong AKP administration, with an unusually lengthy mandate. The discussion presents a catalogue of some of the most pressing causes for concern in that regard, detailing, where available, the government initiatives and actions in respective areas: femicide, violence against LGBTI individuals, especially transgender women, hate crimes, the ordeal of sex workers, prisoners denied a right to release on health grounds, the astonishing toll of workplace mortality, and the defacing of urban space in gargantuan proportions through a construction craze in the wake of the old regime. Endeavouring to make sense of the highly disputed function of urban construction works for the government, the chapter also includes an evaluation of the state of the economy, which appeared to have failed to modify the economy structurally, relying merely on various palliative and crisis-ridden schemes.

Media Engineering

The state of Turkey’s national media under the new regime, curbed in independence far in excess of typical media capture, having allegedly been ‘re-engineered’, with whole media outlets taken over by the government through moot uses of public authority and public resources from 2007, is narrated in this chapter. The chapter describes the hitherto unseen government pressure on the media, with scores of dissident journalists rendered jobless, and those more openly critical incarcerated and put on trial on flimsy charges. The discussion includes a description of some of the pro-government media practices—unprecedented, astounding, and simply incomprehensible by even the lowest standards of media ethics, such as a fabricated interview with Chomsky printed in headline in the pro-government flagship daily in 2013, purportedly communicating Chomsky’s support to Erdogan’s conspiratorial vision of international politics. The discussion also looks into the increasing government control of the Internet access and social media.

Resistance to Change

Of the apparent stamina of resistance to change, not only in Turkey but also in the Middle East, this chapter argues that treating the draconian regimes in the greater region as mere vestiges of native authoritarianisms lacks insights into the ostensible strength of those regimes. Accordingly, a characteristically ‘modern’ rationality could be implicit in the project of forced emancipation that largely defined the despotisms in the region during the Arab Spring. Motivated by a unique ‘liberation theology’ to save the locals ‘from themselves’, the regimes enforced ‘modernity’ in the face of traditional identities and practices. Promising autonomy from the tutelage of the local, this theology not only manufactured a crucial element of consent in respective domestic societies, but also brought together strands of global thinking, all possibly motivated by a normative commitment to modernity, ultimately in favour of those authoritarianisms: the Turkish neo-nationalism (ulusalcılık), the US neo-conservatism, and Dugin’s Eurasianism.

Anything Goes?

This chapter is on a set of dubious government practices following the regime change, as reflected in the OSCE reports on Turkey elections, in securing success at the ballot box, including the way in which the ruling AKP allegedly financed politics. The discussion details the unfair poll environment, which left the opposition practically crippled, and the state of the basic rights crucial for the ballot box to make full sense. The chapter also provides an account of the corruption claims from December 2013—chiefly bid-rigging and money laundering that allegedly involved Erdogan and his family, beside cabinet members—filed originally by Gulenist prosecutors relying mostly on wiretapped conversations, to be posted anonymously online from early 2014. The chapter ends with a section on the role of the military in the aftermath of the old regime, with an assessment of its possibly resilient reflexes, prior to the abortive coup of 2016.

Trials

This chapter is on the extensive legal probes and subsequent trials from 2007 in response to alleged attempts towards a military takeover in Turkey, coupled with claims of a ‘deep state’ in the midst of diverse anti-government conspiracies. Uniquely instrumental in silencing the opposition, formal or popular, in resistance to the recasting of power in process, the trials would come to be described by none other than the government itself from the end of 2013 as nothing but mere show trials, with mostly trumped up charges. Now in an escalating war of attrition with the Gulenist cult—the staunchest allies until shortly before—the government would blame the blatant miscarriages of justice against the members of the military and opposition figures solely on the Gulenist police and judiciary. The chapter chronicles the cases, looking into the way they were handled, with some twists to follow, ultimately almost fully to be aborted.

Introduction

This chapter rehearses an answer to the following question: how did the pursuit of ‘advanced democracy’, as initially promised, develop into a new form of authoritarianism in Turkey, more than replicating the old one, shortly after the former regime was no more? The chapter describes a ‘loop’ throughout the history of political modernisation locally, notwithstanding some dramatic splits and reshuffles, ultimately submitting to a more profound level of recurrence and cloning of ‘desire’ in a common pool of amazingly resilient local political culture. In putting forward this contention, the discussion relies on Girard’s work on the machinations of basic human desire. Accordingly, desire is notably mimetic, modelled on the other. The model is none other than the ‘rival’, held subliminally in esteem, while being detested at the same time. The chapter argues that the new, populist authoritarianism in Turkey could be understood as a play of desire in this mould.

Peace at Home

This chapter reviews the government policies in Turkey in a host of long outstanding issue areas, mostly predating the AKP rule, such as the tension between piety and secularism, especially in exercises of free speech, with a freshly acquired zeal on the part of the judiciary towards ‘protecting religious values’, in effect cases of deemed ‘blasphemy’ against Islam; the basic Alevi rights towards a full recognition, which fell on deaf ears as before; gross impunity of the security forces in tackling the Kurdish insurgence, as in the Roboskî massacre of 2011; and the domestic debate on the ghastly fate of the Ottoman Armenians, traced here through the baffling mysteries of the Dink assassination in 2007. The chapter also comments on the purported government complicity in the jihadist bloodbath in the greater region following the Arab Spring and on the attendant allegations of its ‘international crimes’, especially in Syria.