Erdogan will likely 'eradicate Turkey’s independent judiciary and free press' if reelected: libertarian

18 May 2023

Critics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been hoping that he will be voted out of office this year. Instead, Erdogan had more votes than rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu when Round 1 in Turkey's presidential race was held on Sunday, May 14. But because neither Erdogan nor Kilicdaroglu reached 50 percent of the vote, the election will go to a May 28 runoff.

Libertarian author Mustafa Akyol (a Cato Institute senior fellow) expresses pessimism about the election in an op-ed published by the Washington Post on May 17. Akyol laments that Erdogan is likely to be reelected and fears that Turkey will slide even deeper into authoritarianism if that happens.

"Should (Erdogan) win," Akyol warns, "the next five years don't look promising. After all, Erdogan has already turned Turkey into a quasi-single-party state. And worse might be in store. He may eradicate whatever is left of the independent judiciary, free press and critical academia. He has also promised a whole new constitution, which could realize many of the dreams of the religious right."

Erdogan technically isn't a full-fledged dictator the way that Spain's Francisco Franco and Chile's Gen. Augusto Pinochet were, but he has stayed in power by undermining the checks and balances in what used to be arguably the most liberal democracy in the Islamic world. And the Turkish president has been praised by some MAGA Republicans in the U.S. — most notably, former President Donald Trump.

Akyol, author of the 2021 book "Why, As a Muslim, I Defend Liberty," notes, "Suggestions by pro-Erdogan partisans include abolishing the constitutional court, putting even more religion into public education, curbing women's rights and banning 'heretical' — liberal — interpretations of Islam."

Mustafa Akyol's Washington Post op-ed can be found in its entirety at this link (subscription required).

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