Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during an event to close the electoral campaign in Sariyer, near Istanbul, Turkey, 15 April 2017. Michael Kappeler\/Press Agency. All rights reserved.Citizens of Turkey are about to vote in a
\nreferendum to decide whether to abandon the country\u2019s parliamentary regime for
\nan exceptionally powerful executive
\npresidency. Constitutional amendments in question would grant the president
\ncomplete
\npower to rule with impunity over the executive and the budget, and a considerable
\nauthority over the judiciary, while relegating the parliament to a shadow of
\nits former self with minimal power of scrutiny. <\/i><\/p>\n
On paper, this is probably \u2018the most
\nradical political change since the modern republic\u2019s foundation in 1923\u2019
\nand \u2018the culmination of a steady drift towards authoritarianism
\nin Turkey which began a decade ago.<\/p>\n
However, from a strictly practical perspective, it
\nis possible to argue that there is hardly any point in the coming Turkish
\nreferendum to be held on April 16, 2017. Despite all the hype within the \u2018yes\u2019
\nand \u2018no\u2019 camps, both of which consider it as the most important vote ever to be
\ncast in the country\u2019s history, one tends to miss that the referendum cannot
\nyield a major change in practical terms regardless of what the actual result
\nmay be. The referendum cannot yield a major change
\nin practical terms regardless of what the actual result may be.<\/p>\n
If \u2018yes\u2019 votes carry the day and the constitutional In the contrary case where the amendments fail to Especially in the absence of any organized In my opinion, the significance<\/em> of this This, after all, is the why many patently Even though the current regime in Turkey would The April 16 referendum is also a spatial act that This has already created an irreconcilable schism It is the maintenance and reinforcement of this In this sense, the referendum is also the ultimate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during an event to close the electoral campaign in Sariyer, near Istanbul, Turkey, 15 April 2017. Michael Kappeler\/Press Agency. All rights reserved.Citizens of Turkey are about to vote in a referendum to decide whether to abandon the country\u2019s parliamentary regime for an exceptionally powerful executive presidency. Constitutional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\namendments pass, the \u2018new\u2019 regime will be largely the same as the one that has
\nalready been in practice since 28 August 2014, the day Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan
\ntook the oath of office and became the 12th President of Turkey. At least since
\nthen, Erdo\u011fan has been ruling de facto<\/em> as the executive President, and
\nacting upon the capacities \u2018new\u2019 amendments propose to grant him with
\ncompletely impunity. Enjoying an absolute authority over the sheepishly loyal
\nAKP government he has personally handpicked, Erdo\u011fan has already issued
\nexecutive decrees, dismissed and appointed ministers, managed the use of armed
\nforces both within and beyond the country\u2019s borders, nullifying the elections,
\ndissolving the parliament, declaring a state of emergency, and ordering mass
\ninstitutional purges and arrests of MPs, mayors, journalists, academics,
\nbusinessmen and others. <\/p>\n
\npass, there is no indication whatsoever that the current situation where
\nErdo\u011fan maintains a complete grip on power will not simply continue. The very
\nfact that the referendum is to be held under the current state of emergency
\n(going on for over 8 months and able to be extended indefinitely) is an obvious
\nsign that things are not expected to change much in the aftermath of the
\nreferendum, even if the opposition votes somehow \u2018win\u2019.<\/p>\n
\nopposition or institutional limitation to speak of under the ongoing state of
\nemergency where his word is practically law, it is therefore not immediately
\nclear to see why Erdo\u011fan has insisted on holding a referendum. After all, at
\nbest, it would retrospectively grant de jure <\/em>cover to his de facto <\/em>rule.
\nIs it even necessary to make all this look legitimate in a country where the
\nsovereign can and does rule in a manner that is completely unrestrained by
\nprinciples of rule of law and the separation of powers, and either violently
\nsuppresses or renders subservient almost all entities that are designed to
\ncheck and balance his sovereign power? <\/p>\n
\nparticular referendum lies entirely in its symbolic and spacial dimensions, a
\ncombination of which constitutes the reason why Erdo\u011fan and the AKP government
\nhave been pushing hard for it to take place. On the one hand, the April 16
\nreferendum is a symbolic act because it constitutes an indispensable step to
\ngranting democratic legitimacy to Erdo\u011fan\u2019s one-man rule. That is, of course,
\ninsofar as democracy is crudely degraded to the unconstrained rule of a
\nnumerical majority, usually \u2018gained\u2019 under highly questionable, unfair and
\nopaque circumstances of campaigning, voting and counting. Nonetheless, a
\nsignificant feature of the democratic hegemony of
\nthe post-war era is that it is a symbolic one, obliging the ruling classes to
\nmaintain the fa\u00e7ade of democracy by displaying at least a nominal respect for
\nits formal procedures. Even when it is obvious that a given regime is a
\ndictatorship or a particular election an utter sham, one has to act as if it is
\nnot in order to reproduce the democratic
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
\nnondemocratic regimes feel obliged to call themselves democracies, such as the
\n\u2018Democratic\u2019 Republics of Congo, North Korea, and Laos. It is also the reason
\nwhy regimes like Mugabe\u2019s Zimbabwe, Nazarbayev\u2019s Kazakhstan, Lukashenko\u2019s
\nBelarus, and Aliyev\u2019s Azerbaijan still go through the symbolic ritual of
\n\u2018democratic\u2019 elections under conditions that all but negate the very point of
\nholding elections in the first place. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s regime, in this sense, needs
\nthose credentials to maintain the democratic fa\u00e7ade, without which its deeply
\ncorrupt and increasingly
\nviolent rule is simply naked, but in a twisted and reflexive sense. <\/p>\n
\nprobably continue undisturbed even after a \u2018no\u2019 result, those who have stood by
\nit cannot do so in the absence of the symbolic efficacy
\nprovided by \u2018popular sovereignty\u2019 that enables them to disavow the brute facts
\nof the real. That is to say, without the seal of approval the April 16
\nreferendum is supposed to provide, it is impossible to maintain the collective
\nlie and keep acting as if<\/em> the political regime in Turkey carries even
\nminimal democratic legitimacy.<\/p>\n
\nserves to further polarize and consolidate the bipolar hegemony in Turkish
\npolitics around the figure of Erdo\u011fan himself, antagonistically dividing society
\nbetween the two homogenous camps of Erdo\u011fanists and anti-Erdo\u011fanists. Reducing
\nthe plurality of positions within the political space to a bipolar division of \u2018yes\u2019
\nand \u2018no\u2019, it functions as a litmus test that compels all to disclose their \u2018true
\ncolors\u2019 vis-\u00e0-vis the figure of Erdo\u011fan. <\/p>\n
\nwithin the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the only significant competitor to
\nthe AKP for the country\u2019s overwhelmingly right-wing electorate. Accusing the
\nMHP leader and his clique of acting as Erdo\u011fan\u2019s fifth column, a sizable
\ngroup led by several MPs has rejected the official \u2018yes\u2019 stance of the
\nparty and splintered off to campaign for a \u2018no\u2019 vote. A similar yet less
\nprominent line of division is discernable among the Kurdish
\npolitical movements as well. An Erdo\u011fanist minority has been in formation
\naround the optimistic conviction that a decisive victory in the referendum
\nwould give the President the necessary boost of power and confidence to restart
\nthe peace negotiations with the Kurds. It is the
\nmaintenance and reinforcement of this particular antagonism, the bipolar form
\nitself, which is of vital importance for the survival of Erdo\u011fan\u2019s and, by
\nextension, AKP\u2019s hegemony in Turkish politics.<\/p>\n
\nparticular antagonism, the bipolar form itself, which is of vital importance
\nfor the survival of Erdo\u011fan\u2019s and, by extension, AKP\u2019s hegemony in Turkish
\npolitics. In the absence of any other mobilizing factors that used to enable
\nthe AKP government to consolidate and expand its support base (such as economic
\npolicies generating prosperity and growth, welfare policies offering social
\nsecurity, foreign policy success stories providing a sense of national pride
\nand common identity) this pure antagonism based on a cult of personality that depicts
\nevery political conflict as a matter of life and death for the leader and \u2018the
\npeople\u2019 he is supposed to embody is the only way for the AKP to remain in
\npower. Thus, the April 16 referendum is an act of desperation on AKP\u2019s part,
\nwhich uses perhaps the only gun left in its war chest: Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n
\nexpression of Erdo\u011fan\u2019s political narcissism, indicating that he is willing to
\nrisk it all just to maintain his position in the spotlight and remain the locus
\nof the Turkish body politic. In the midst of all that chaos, violence and
\nnoise, the April 16 referendum is ultimately a very expensive and reckless way
\nof forcing every single citizen in Turkey to answer an essentially personal
\nand, in fact, trivial question: Don\u2019t you like Erdo\u011fan? After fifteen years in
\npower alone, it is rather tragic to witness the crumbling of a once mighty
\nself-confidence into a sad question that begs for an affirmation of self-worth
\nin the eyes of others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"