Voters love strong leaders everywhere. Though the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Turkish parliamentary poll was widely expected, the actual results are bound to prove disheartening for the opposition. For, after the indiscriminate crackdown on Erdogan’s critics following the failed coup in 2016, Turkey has been under an emergency, with more than 50,000 people languishing in jails without trial, more than 1,00,000 dismissed from service, a number of journalists sacked and imprisoned. Yet, the voters had no compunction in voting the same man back to power, and arming him with far more powers than any other head of government in a democratic system.
Erdogan is now assured of retaining power, if he chooses to, until 2028, that is, after his new term ends in 2023 he can seek yet another five-year term. Why the voters rejected the Opposition challenger who merely got 31 per cent of the popular vote against Erdogan’s 53 is not easy to fathom. Maybe they bought into his propaganda that he alone stood between chaos and order, that a strong leader alone can handle the troubles on the border with Syria and inside the country with the Kurdish nationalists getting stridently vociferous for independence. Erdogan went to the people to seek an overhaul of the parliamentary system, with him now assuming the nomenclature of President and assuming unchecked powers to appoint ministers, judges, bureaucrats, vice-president, etc.
The transformation from the prime ministerial to the presidential form in this case removes whatever checks and controls the parliament could exercise over Erdogan’s actions. He now heads what his critics have called a one-man government. The streak of authoritarianism in his mental make-up was on display fully following the failed coup. But the coup itself indicated a level of alienation and anger against Erdogan for his reneging on the country’s secular constitution. Not only has he overtly abandoned trappings of secularism, but, he has also turned his back on the western alliance. His new-found friendship with the Russian autocrat Valdimir Putin has jeopardised the long-standing Turkish campaign to be admitted as a full-fledged member of the European Union.
Despite the brave words of Erdogan, the fact is that since his dalliance with the Russians, and his open tirade against the European leaders, the Turkish currency has slipped nearly twenty per cent. Inflation is high and the common man is reeling under the added pressure on the economy of lakhs of refugees of the Syrian conflict. Yet, not unlike the democratic-dictators elsewhere, Erdogan used the ultra nationalist card to win a strong mandate. Hopefully, he will now restore basic freedoms and release from prison tens of thousands held on mere suspicion, allow a free press and give the critics space to operate without fear of arrest and torture. Let Turkey yet again become a functioning democracy.