Michael M. Gunter
After more than 20 years in power, it is time for Turkish President Recep Erdoğan to go! As the English historian Lord Acton famously noted, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Erdoğan stands as a casebook example of this celebrated maxim.
Although he fostered a successful economy when he first came to power in 2002 and offered hope to solve the Kurdish problem, Turkey today is shackled by runaway hyperinflation that has plunged millions into poverty. As for the Kurdish issue, Erdoğan has simply escalated it to win ultra-nationalist, Turkish support. Those speaking up peacefully for Kurdish rights are defamed as supporters of terrorism. As for the economy, Erdoğan has been reduced to espousing crackpot economic strategies such as lowering interest rates to fight inflation, a policy that any economist would immediately recognize as furthering inflation rather than reducing it.
Erdoğan continues to preside over a kleptocratic bureaucracy that has enriched him, his family, and closest associates. He has even built himself an enormous presidential palace that requires motorized transportation to navigate and from which to preside over his now tottering domain. His failure to rein in corrupt building contractors and slow response to last February’s earthquake disaster contributed to the more than 50,000 deaths. He also has muzzled the press, imprisoned political opponents such as former HDP leaders Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ and many HDP mayors on trumped up terrorism charges. In addition, he has reduced the independent judiciary and parliament, among many other injurious acts. Turkish democracy has been placed on perilous life support.
Infamously, Turkey’s would-be, modern sultan once declared that “democracy is like a train; you get off once you have reached your [real] destination.” In other words, one can use democratic means to achieve non-democratic goals. Analysing Erdoğan’s imaginary train journey, one must conclude that the Turkish leader never intended to reach democracy. Indeed, now that he largely has achieved his actual authoritarian goal, he has jumped off the train. Sunday’s election will provide Turkey the opportunity to get back on the train to democracy!
For Turkey’s large Kurdish minority, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu provides a new, more hopeful path if he can be elected as the new president on Sunday. Indeed, Kılıçdaroğlu’s recent cautious statement on the Kurdish issue reflects his desire for peace and justice on the basis of promoting a new national dialogue to overcome the explosive politics of identity that polarizes Turkish society: “There is a destiny that makes Turks and Kurds brothers. Fate brought us together. Fate told us to be brothers. Fate laid us down in Canakkale, Sakarya and Dumlupinar. There is no deep love like brotherly love. We’ve been together for centuries. . . . I will never, ever let anyone harm the brotherhood.”
On the other hand, we must not expect too much, too quickly from a Kılıçdaroğlu victory on Sunday. After all, Kılıçdaroğlu is first and foremost the leader of the Turkish nationalist, supposedly social democratic CHP, originally established by Kemal Atatürk himself almost a century ago. Over the years, the CHP arguably has been the Kurds’ main political nemesis in Turkey. Although Kılıçdaroğlu is an Alevi and Zaza, groups often associated with the Kurds, he does not identify as a Kurd. Indeed, as already noted, he has admirably disdained divisive identity politics.
Nevertheless, it would seem too much to assume that he would take much of a pro-Kurdish stance if elected. In addition, the six-party alliance plus HDP/Green Left Party supporting Kılıçdaroğlu also includes the centre-right, nationalist, and Kemalist İyi (Good) Party, which cannot be expected to view the Kurdish agenda favourably. Winning is not just gaining the presidency, but successfully governing. Team government is unusual in Turkey. How long would the Kılıçdaroğlu coalition hold together? Erdoğan will likely still be there waiting for the new Kılıçdaroğlu government to fail so that he might return to power. Thus, while a Kılıçdaroğlu victory might offer new, positive possibilities, the Kurdish problem in Turkey would likely persist. However, re-establishing the rule of law by electing Kılıçdaroğlu would still be a victory for all those denied justice and equality including the embattled Kurdish minority.
Finally, if Kılıçdaroğlu does win, Erdoğan can do much good for the future of Turkish democracy as well as begin to regain his own tattered reputation by accepting the election’s results and magnanimously facilitating the inauguration of the new government. He will have lost one election, but will possibly have the opportunity to return to power in a future one. He also will have shown the United States in particular and the world in general how a real democratic leader should act. After all, the peaceful transition of power is exactly what true democracy is.
Michael M. Gunter is a professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University[1] in Cookeville, Gunter has worked directly with top Kurdish and other Middle Eastern political leaders. He received the Kurdish Human Rights Watch’s “Service to the Kurds Award” in 1998.
