Turkey after the referendum Part 1

The referendum gives Erdogan almost unlimited power for years to come   by children of the era of Europeanization, who decided to go “native Turkish way.” But this path was not constructed in the mosques.

“Easter referendum” in Turkey was planned by Erdogan and his supporters as a way to get almost unlimited power to crush remaining pockets of opposition and lead the country to where will be pointed to by the long hand of its leader.

For longevity at the helm of reigning Recep Tayyip Erdogan will soon surpass the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), and with the new Constitution will be able to rule Turkey until at least 2029. Of the momentous referendum that we have seen over the last two years, Turkish is the most pseudo democratic legal and political terms.

Erdogan was aiming for probably. He controlled the Turkish Parliament passed with simple majority (not two thirds, as it should be on key constitutional issues) decision on semi castrate and the transfer of power to the President in volume, which had the Ottoman sultans in the last decades, Turkish Ports.

In violation of liberal democratic norms, the referendum was declared valid upon receipt again of a simple majority of voters, not two thirds or even a majority of registered voters, as should happen in political systems that take into account the rights of minorities and a system of checks and balances. Finally, the referendum took place in a state of emergency imposed by Erdogan after the defeat of the military coup in July last year. Moreover, the referendum took place in fact in a state of emergency and terror against the opposition: in the prisons of Turkey are 13 members of Parliament and about two thousand activists from the main opposition parties   the Pro-Kurdish people’s democratic party (NDP).

Authorities closed 45 Newspapers, 32 radio, 30 channels and 19 magazines. The control of the party of Erdogan over the media was almost exclusive. Of course, there was no control over the Internet but endogenously have learned very well to use it. It is socio electronic network played a key role in the mobilization of supporters of Erdogan in the July days of a failed military coup.

Hundreds of opposition figures, intellectuals, journalists jailed “on suspicion” of involvement in the conspiracy and baseless charges of “humanism”. Thousands of dissidents, among them officials and professors, denied passports and cannot travel abroad. Other thousands of liberal minded Turks working abroad has been banned, upon their return home they risk arrest.

Critics inside and outside threats that are declared “traitors”. While the AKP spent the frenzied activity in the Turkish communities in the European Union, enlisting there the shock column mode and at the same time revealing the “renegades”. Nevertheless, the results of the vote is far from certain the ruling party and its leader: 51.4 per cent “for” and 48.6 percent against. This is not the triumph of the popular will, which would like to see the ruling justice and development party (AKP) and its allies.

But, alas, for political and cultural history of Turkey it doesn’t matter. Erdogan celebrates victory and aggressively reacts to any attempt by inside and outside to put it into question.

There is no paradox

Mustafa Kemal modernized Turkey after becoming a national hero for decades. Political commentators time to talk about the old, Kemalist Turkey in terms of pathology. The extracted iron will of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from the debris of the Ottoman Empire, this country as a political project is dead. The idea of modernization in European style, its integration into a wider Europe are buried.

New great helmsman of Turkey aims to bring back the people and the country to the Ottoman roots, to turn it into one of the independent powers of the multipolar world, the center of gravity of the Turkic and, perhaps, the entire Islamic world. Erdogan and the AKP came to power by democratic means, relying mainly on rural Turkish hinterland, but also on new layers of the city that emerged in the last 20 years, the Turkish economic miracle.

There is no paradox. This is not the first case when the socio economic and political progress, passing through the neo liberal scheme, liberates and mobilizes the anti-liberal forces.