ISTANBUL — September 9, 2025
By Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board
Turkey today is no longer the hopeful democracy that once stood as a rare example in the region. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it is becoming a dictatorship in all but name — a country where courts replace ballots, prisons replace debate, and fear replaces freedom.
The arrest of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March was not an isolated case. It was a warning shot. Since then, hundreds of opposition figures from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been detained. The party’s provincial leadership in Istanbul was dissolved by a judge’s order and replaced with a court-appointed trustee. The current CHP leader, Özgür Özel — who revived the party and posed a real threat to Erdoğan — now faces removal through another politically staged trial.
This is how autocracy consolidates itself: not in one blow, but through the slow, methodical use of courts, police, and prisons to strangle dissent. Erdoğan’s Turkey increasingly mirrors Vladimir Putin’s Russia — a system where opposition parties exist on paper but are neutered by constant harassment, arrests, and fabricated charges.
The human toll is staggering. Thousands languish behind bars on politically motivated accusations: journalists accused of “insulting the president,” academics accused of “terror propaganda,” students punished for chanting slogans in the streets. Independent media has been gutted, social networks throttled, and any attempt at protest is met with tear gas and truncheons.
Erdoğan lost ground in last year’s local elections. Instead of winning back support, he is using state power to ensure the opposition cannot compete at all. This is not the behavior of a confident leader. It is the behavior of a man clinging to power by dismantling the very system that once legitimized him.
Turkey now faces a defining moment. Either its citizens — and its allies abroad — push back against Erdoğan’s authoritarian path, or the country slides fully into one-man rule. The choice is stark: democracy, or dictatorship dressed up with elections that mean nothing.
If Erdoğan succeeds, Turkey will no longer be the “last bastion” of democracy in its neighborhood. It will simply be another cautionary tale — of how a leader, once elected, used the tools of democracy to bury it.
This editorial reflects the position of the Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board, which calls for fairness, dignity, and accountability in social practices across Azerbaijan.
