Consider This from NPR - This Is What Democracy Looks Like? How Erdogan Won Again In Turkey

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

In the months ahead of the election, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced criticism for his government's response to devastating earthquakes and for crushing inflation. Yet, he still managed to come out ahead in this week's runoff election, extending his two-decade tenure leading Turkey by another five years.His victory was a case study in how to use populism, intimidation and division to harness a democracy and stay in power.NPR's Fatma Tanis breaks down his victory and what it means for democracy in Turkey and more broadly.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. For a moment this year, it looked like Recep Tayyip Erdogan's firm grip on power in Turkey might finally be loosening. We're tracking breaking news out of Turkey where a major earthquake has struck the southern part of the country. The death toll from the February earthquakes quickly rose into the thousands, then tens of thousands. Millions of people were left homeless. People died in the rubble

waiting for rescue crews. And even though they faced arrest for doing so, Turks began to criticize their government's response. Unfortunately, we are not getting help. The Red Crescent Relief used to give out food, but now that's stopped too. That's 36-year-old Shukran speaking weeks after the earthquake, at that point still living in a tent. May God have mercy on all our dead everywhere, but we have survivors here and we need to help them. It wasn't just the emergency response. Video emerged of Erdogan from 2019. He was boasting about fast-tracking housing by allowing contractors to ignore building codes

that were designed to help structures withstand earthquakes. Engineers and architects say the lack of these safety measures may have contributed to the massive level of destruction and death. Here's Turkish writer Yasemin Jandimir. If you ask who is responsible, I will say the one who broke away from the parliamentary and democratic system. It is a form of management based on a single person without control mechanism. Over 20 years leading Turkey, first as prime minister, then president, Erdogan slowly remade the state around himself. His government shuttered independent TV channels and jailed political opponents. He pushed through a constitutional referendum that

gave him new, broad powers. But the presidential election in May looked like a window of opportunity to his critics. Maybe the last. Here's Soner Choptai with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy ahead of the vote. Either two decades of rule by President Erdogan will come to an end and Turkey will revert back to democracy and rule of law, or Erdogan will win and he'll stay at Turkey's helm while he's alive as Turkey's new sultan. Well... We're going to start with an election call in Turkey for you first. Erdogan did win. We'll look at what that could mean for the fate of democracy in Turkey and around the world.

From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Thursday, June 1st. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. It's Consider This from NPR. It wasn't just the earthquake. Even before that, people in Turkey were dealing with crushing inflation. People like 50-year-old Murat Yaman in Istanbul struggled to pay for the basics like potatoes and onions.

When I go to the market tomorrow, how much will it cost me? That's all I can think of. We can't make five-year plans. We can only make monthly plans. And I have no hope. But despite all of that, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election with 52 percent of the vote. And his win is a case study in how to use populism, intimidation, and division to harness a democracy and stay in power. NPR's Fatma Tanis is in Istanbul covering the election and its aftermath. So Fatma, Erdogan oversaw a period of a lot of suffering in Turkey. Many people thought that his policies contributed to that, but he won anyway. How did it happen? There are several reasons. For one thing, lots of people like him.

And a lot of it goes back to when he first came to power after decades where the secular government before him had repressed the working class and conservative religious people. They weren't allowed to practice their religion freely and didn't really receive the same benefits from the government as others did. Erdogan changed that gradually. He changed some laws. And so now he enjoys a level of dedication that his opposition doesn't have. And here's how journalist and press freedom advocate Baris Altintas put it. You know, he stands for something for his voters. I think this is what opposition fails to understand, that he means something to these people. And I think this is what opposition fails to understand, that he

means something to these people. And I think that is a role that's very hard to fill for another person. And there were other elements too. You know, Erdogan really employed a hard religious nationalist rhetoric. He touted, you know, military and technological innovation that had happened under his tenure. There's been a hulking warship on display in the Bosphorus through the election. A Turkish-made electronic car has also made the rounds with him throughout the campaign. And so these were also some of the elements that really drew the crowds. So I'm hearing in part that he played to identity issues for a lot of people, but did Erdogan's supporters mention the economy or the earthquake response at all? They did, and the answers were interesting. You know, the day of the election, I was at a polling

station in Istanbul where I spoke to a mother and daughter who had just cast their votes for Erdogan. And the mother, her name was Sabiha Doğan, she told me that she wasn't voting because she thought Erdogan could fix the economy or that he would make other issues go away. There were other reasons why she was voting for him. And she gave an example as she and her daughter, who they wear headscarves, as they entered the polling station, some women who supported the opposition had made some derogatory comments about their headscarves, which made them feel validated in their choice of candidate.

Her daughter, Hülya Doğan, who's 24 years old, said she wasn't really a fanatic voter for Erdoğan. She said she wants freedom for everyone and that the opposition and those who support the opposition only want democracy for themselves and they won't respect other freedoms. So Erdoğan has a loyal base of support, but we've also mentioned that he used the power of the state to suppress the opposition. So, Fatma, how fair was this election? Well, it was certainly not a level playing field. Erdogan had a lot of advantage over his opponent, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

For one, as the incumbent, he used the state's resources under his hand to, you know, dole out benefits and gain favor and votes. Then there's the issue of the media. Erdogan controls nearly all of it. And while he was able to campaign as much as he liked and was constantly present, you know, on TV, his opponent really had to fight to get airtime. You know, one report showed that in one month, a state-run network gave Erdogan 32 hours of coverage while his opponent got only 32 minutes. Wow. And I mean, just listening to you say that, it seems kind of incredible that the opposition still got 48% of the vote given all those odds against them. It really is. And in a lot of ways, it did showcase Turkey's democratic culture. Voter turnout was also really high, 84%. Here's Daron Acemoglu, an economist at MIT who follows Turkey

and co-author of the book, Why Nations Fail. And he's talking about this. The commitment to the electoral process is there. And I think politicians are going to continue to play by some of the rules of the electoral process, pay lip service to democracy. But, you know, high voter turnout is also a sign of poor democracy, analysts say, because this is the only way that people can voice their opinions. They can't really protest anymore. There have been a lot of laws against that recently under Erdogan. You know, the courts aren't free, the media isn't free. And so voting is all they have. Erdogan is now another five years leading Turkey. And now that he's consolidated power for five more years, is there any indication of what he plans to do with it? Well, there's an expectation that it'll be, we'll see a continuation of what we have so far.

But, you know, the night of the election, Erdogan's victory speech actually gave us some signs. He started it at first with a softer tone. He's saying here that, you know, this victory is for all of Turkey. The true victor is our democracy. He thanked everyone who voted. It was a conciliatory tone. But as he kept talking, he slipped back into his campaign rhetoric, you know, attacking LGBTQ people and calling his opponents terrorists. And so rights groups that I've talked to say, you know, they don't really

know what's going to happen in the next five years. They're on edge. Some of it could just be rhetoric that he has used to gain votes. But five years, I'm told in Turkey is a long time. And even the next five months is hard to see. Does this election tell us anything about the state of democracy around the world more broadly? Yes, analysts say that what happened in Turkey is part of a global trend where populist leaders, Prime Minister Orban in Hungary, President Modi in India, use polarizing language, cater to nationalist feeling, they demonize the opposition, to have a hold on the majority of the population. And here's Daron Ajomolo again, the professor from MIT, explaining more. Here is the worst news from my point of view, from Turkey. It shows that the strategy that Erdogan uses, which has much in common with what Modi, Orban, and Trump have used,

that strategy is still very potent. There are geopolitical implications for Selection 2. Turkey is a member of the NATO alliance, but it has been friendly to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It hasn't participated in U.S. and European sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. Are there signs that Erdogan's reelection could push him closer to Russia or to the West? That's a question that's on a lot of people's minds. But, you know, for Turkey and for Erdogan, it's more about being independent than anything else. Given Turkey's economic condition, its location. Relations with Russia are important. But beyond that, Erdogan and Putin have built a relationship on a personal level. They are like business partners, one analyst told me.

And Erdogan tends to conduct a very transactional foreign policy, meaning that it's not really tied to ideology. He can be nimble. And so what we're likely to see is that Erdogan's going to continue to walk that fine line between East and West that he's been doing in the past years. Now, Turkey does have presidential term limits. And under the constitution, this should be Erdogan's last term. But Fatma, do people there in Turkey believe it will be? You know, some do, mainly because he said it would be, this election would be his last time running. Whether it will actually be his last

term, you know, nobody knows. But there are a few things here. One, his age, he's 69 years old, he appears, you know, more frail than he's been before. But the entire system, all of the power that Erdogan has consolidated is built around him. And so the question is, you know, without him, how does it all work? There's no successor in sight. And that's the big question on a lot of people's minds. NPR's Fatma Tanis in Istanbul. Thank you. Thank you Thank you

It's Consider This from NPR I'm Juana Summers Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability upward mobility and economic prosperity regardless of race, gender or geography Kauffman.org Thank you.