Turkey’s autocratic descent has lessons for the US

The arrest of Istanbul’s Mayor and the opposition’s leading contender for the 2028 elections, Ekrem İmamoğlu, marks a new threshold in Turkey’s descent into full autocracy.

 

Although the country formally transitioned to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s one-man regime in 2017 that entirely abolished the separation of powers and rendered parliament functionally irrelevant, elections have remained to be held within a legal framework that preserved a veneer of legitimacy.

 

Now, with İmamoğlu –widely regarded as Erdoğan’s strongest potential challenger in 2028– being eliminated through judicial means, Turkey has entered a new phase in which elections will be little more than a ritualistic performance. In this sense, the country has now joined the ranks of Belarus, Russia, and Venezuela.

 

For the first time in modern Turkish politics —where multi-party elections have been held since 1946— a political leader has indicated that he will no longer recognize the legitimacy of elections and the ballot box, asserting that the right to govern will no longer be determined through elections. This move, which will further diminish the opposition’s expectations from the ballot box, symbolizes a setback that paves the way for Turkey to be ruled by a clique clinging to a nostalgic and anachronistic longing for monarchy.