TÜRKİYE ORTA ASYA HABER KKUORDİNATÖRÜ

DEMOCRACY PROJECT: USA NYU LAW WORLD TURKISH NEWS-WORLDPRES Autocratic Resistance and Democratic Responses: The People Going Mad in Turkey While Turkey's main opposition party, CHP, is currently under scrutiny, Parliament will begin its new legislative session on October 1, 2025. Meanwhile, political tensions remain high with the establishment of a temporary parliamentary committee to address the peacebuilding process for the Kurdish issue and a possible constitutional debate. The current legal and political situation necessitates an examination of strategies for maintaining autocratic resistance and developing democratic responses under pressure. demirozcane May 8, 2026 Autocratic repertoire: from judicial proceedings to a civil constitution Ongoing legal proceedings are based on allegations against leading politicians of the main opposition and some intra-party decisions, while also questioning the party's institutional autonomy. The judicial strategy appears multi-layered and comprehensive, encompassing criminal law and laws regulating political parties and elections. Initially, a criminal case was opened against İmamoğlu, the popular mayor of Istanbul, on various charges of abuse of power and corruption, leading to the largest public protests seen in Turkey in over a decade. İmamoğlu, who has reconnected the CHP with broad segments of society, remains the main opposition's presidential candidate in the upcoming elections. However, İmamoğlu's right to participate in the presidential elections was eliminated by the revocation of his university degree, a constitutional requirement for candidacy (Article 101, paragraph 1 of the Turkish Constitution). From March 2025 onwards, the wave of arrests expanded to include other local officials from the Istanbul municipality and other CHP mayors in major cities. Finally, the institutional autonomy of the CHP began to be questioned, largely due to complaints from CHP members dissatisfied with internal party elections. These members alleged irregularities in the CHP's general and local conventions, leading to changes in critical positions, including party leadership. As a harsh measure, the CHP's Istanbul chairman was removed from office by court order due to election fraud at the 2023 provincial convention. Furthermore, a former CHP deputy chairman, once influential but now disgruntled, was appointed by the court as interim provincial chairman. As explained above, the current challenge facing the CHP is seen as the government's effort to maintain and adapt to the overwhelming victory of the main opposition in the 2024 local elections. Accordingly, autocratic resilience employs judicial pressure as a primary strategy through various forms of action and institutions. The legal framework and public statements are actively used to suppress key figures of the main opposition through prolonged detentions and to portray public protests as vandalism and criminal acts. The development of new autocratic partnerships accompanies judicial pressure through collaboration strategies. In this context, disillusioned figures within the opposition collaborate with the autocratic process by filing legal complaints against the main opposition party, the CHP. This creates a cooperative opposition, justified by inter-party irregularities and fully compatible with the judicial pressure of autocratization. This judicial discipline strategy validates the patronage of the autocratic elite for the new cooperative opposition within the main opposition. The intensity of judicial pressure has also led some opposition mayors to join the ruling party, seen as a safeguard against threats of criminal investigation. Furthermore, conflicts between the current leadership, which supports İmamoğlu and represents the reformist faction, and the old party elites risk the main opposition becoming preoccupied with intra-party rivalries. In addition to judicial pressure, which strengthens autocratic alliances by drawing opposition figures to its side in various ways, the autocratic regime employs other strategies. These efforts aim to increase the government's credibility through legitimate initiatives, focusing on important projects such as creating a new constitution and advancing the Kurdish peace process under the slogan of a "Turkey free from terrorism." The government aims to seize a suitable opportunity to reach new milestones by establishing a temporary parliamentary commission on the Kurdish peace process and initiating a debate on a civilian constitution. In recent years, government circles have frequently discussed the need for a new constitution in their public discourse, often ignoring current democratic setbacks. They have emphasized the importance of moving away from the constitutional choices of the 1980 military regime. In their narratives, the authoritarian legacy of the past and the hegemony of bureaucratic elites over the indigenous population and traditional values ​​have emerged as central themes.