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'Autocratic Rule' of Erdogan Cracks as Secular Left Wins Big in Turkey Elections
"You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality, and freedom," Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu said following his re-election. "You ignited hope at the ballot box."
Apr 01, 2024
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party suffered its worst-ever defeat Sunday when the country's main opposition party scored major wins in municipal elections, including in all five of the nation's largest cities.
With nearly all ballots counted, candidates for the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) emerged victorious in Istanbul, the capital Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Adana, and other cities and towns. Turkish media reported CHP victories in 36 of the country's 81 provinces. The right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) performed best in the largely rural Anatolian interior.
It was the first time in Erdoğan's 21 years as Turkey's increasingly autocratic president that the AKP suffered such a nationwide electoral defeat.
"My dear Istanbulites, you opened the door to a new future today," incumbent CHP Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu told jubilant supporters during his victory speech following what's likely to be a double-digit win over AKP challenger Murat Kurum. "Starting from tomorrow, Turkey will be a different Turkey. You opened the door to the rise of democracy, equality, and freedom... You ignited hope at the ballot box."
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has dealt the biggest blow in two decades to President Erdogan’s AK Party by winning control of major cities in local elections. Ekrem Imamoglu secured a second term as Istanbul’s mayor ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/fjgsLzuEYg
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 1, 2024
Imamoğlu said that Sunday "marks the end of democratic erosion in Turkey and the resurgence of democracy."
"People oppressed under authoritarian regimes now turn their gaze to Istanbul," he added.
In Ankara—where an ecstatic crowd chanted "Turkey is secular and will remain secular!" and "Tayyip resign!" outside the city hall—CHP Mayor Mansur Yavaş promised his second term would be one of greater inclusion after beating his AKP rival by a stunning 25-point margin.
"Our political views may be different... But now the election is over," he told supporters. "We will... continue to serve 6 million Ankara residents without discrimination."
Erdoğan, meanwhile, acknowledged that the AKP "lost altitude" with Sunday's sweeping losses, vowing, "We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings."
Imamoğlu's reelection was a personal blow to Erdoğan, an Istanbul native who launched his political career as the megacity's mayor in the 1990s. The AKP had set its sights on retaking control of Istanbul and Ankara but came up empty-handed.
Analysts said skyrocketing inflation, the collapsing value of the lira, disaffected Islamist voters, and Imamoğlu's popularity—which transcends the CHP's traditionally secular base—were major factors in Sunday's results.
So was the Gaza genocide. While Turkey is supporting the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, Erdoğan and the AKP have been accused—especially by Islamists—of paying little more than lip service to the cause of Palestinian liberation, while Imamoğlu has said that Turkey should immediately sever trade relations with Israel.
Experts said Imamoğlu's victory puts him, and the CHP, at the center of Turkish politics.
"Imamoglu demonstrated he could reach across the deep socio-political divisions that define Turkey's opposition electorate even without their institutional support," Mert Arslanalp, assistant professor of political science at Istanbul's Boğaziçi University, toldReuters. "This makes him the most politically competitive rival to Erdogan's regime."
In the predominantly Kurdish southeast, the progressive People's Equality and Democratic Party (DEM) won 10 provinces. Election-related violence erupted in parts of the region, including in the village of Ağaçlıdere in the Sur district of Diyarbakır, where DEM polling officer Emin Çelik was killed and around a dozen others were wounded. There were multiple reports of Turkish police violently dispersing Kurds celebrating election wins.
International leftists hailed the big wins by CHP and DEM candidates, with Party of European Socialists president Stefan Löfven cheering what he called "a great victory for democracy and a giant step towards a better future of the Turkish people."
"Erdoğan is losing the local elections in the entire country, leaving room for the opposition to breath and to come back victorious at the next national elections," he added. "We are looking forward to that."
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There Are No Human Rights on a Dead Planet
Apr 20, 2014
Last week, I spoke at the International Association of Democratic Lawyers congress in Brussels. In the audience there were over 500 hundred progressive lawyers from over 50 countries. Many of these lawyers focus on human rights issues. I called on the lawyers attending the congress to join me in campaigning for environmental protection and protecting environmental human rights defenders. Below is a summary of my remarks.
Work is getting tougher and tougher for lawyers worldwide, especially those working on human rights issues, including the lawyers representing environmentalists. We at Greenpeace can confirm this based on our work around the world and in our collaboration with big and small NGOs and individual activists fighting on the frontlines, and on the coalface, of environment destruction.
According to the Global Witness report released during the Congress, at least 908 people were killed in 35 countries protecting rights to land and the environment between 2002 and 2013. Moreover, 2012 was the worst year so far to be an environmental defender, with 147 killings - nearly three times more than in 2002. Impunity for these crimes is rife: only 10 perpetrators are known to have been convicted between 2002 and 2013 - just over one per cent of the overall incidence of killings. The problem is particularly acute in Latin America and South East Asia. Brazil is the most dangerous place to defend rights to land and the environment, with 448 killings, followed by Honduras (109) and the Philippines (67).
The sad reality is that being an environmental activist is also deadly. Thanks to people like Billy Kyte of Global Witness for exposing the very scary fact 2 activists protecting rights to land and environment are killed per week.
Our own experiences for example in Istanbul's Gezi Park and in the Russian Arctic last year made me realize how difficult it is to be a peaceful protestor in the current political and legal climate. It takes an incredibly committed individual to stand up against the all powerful - whether they are governments or oil companies - when those individuals have their security put on the line in order to protect all of our rights. The 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists who faced piracy charges following their peaceful protest in the Russian arctic had no chance of receiving a fair trial. Luckily, the Arctic 30, as we call them, had their freedom secured by the millions around the world who stood up and took action to defend them. But most Human Rights defenders are not so lucky.
Environmental campaigners are under attack. Indigenous communities fighting to save their own homes, are too under attack. Governments and corporations are increasingly putting them under immense pressure. Some are being charged with terrorism and piracy, and jailed, silenced and even killed. Their fundamental rights and freedoms are being violated-- freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association - even the right to life itself. As we meet today, Greenpeace worldwide is facing about 72 million euros in damages claims and our activists collectively face decades of jail-time as a result of peaceful campaign efforts aimed at exposing environmental problems. Corporations are seeking court orders to permanently stop protests.
We need vigorous action fighting public backlash and regressive laws. We need the support of human rights lawyers in strategically defending environmental activists and NGOs from government and corporate attacks. I urge human rights lawyers to be creative and fearless in defending environmental activists from injustice.
Let's break down the artificial barriers that have so long separated the human rights, environmental, and development communities. We face common threats. But there are common solutions.
Sharon Burrows of the ITUC, in a meeting with the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, noticed that the he was a bit unsure why she was even there because the topic of the conversation was climate change. She said to him, you might be wondering why as a trade unionist I'm so concerned about the climate. That's because 'there are no jobs, decent or indecent, on a dead planet.' As my good friend, Richard Harvey, one of the organisers of this Congress, rightly points out; there are no human rights on a dead planet. So to bring it home, there are no lawyers or clients on a dead planet either.
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Leaked YouTube Tape: Turkey Plotting Pretext for War With Syria?
Mar 31, 2014
While there was extensive media coverage of the Turkish government cutting off YouTube late last week, just prior to that, there was a posting on YouTube of an apparently leaked tape of Turkish government officials plotting a pretext for war with Syria that has received relatively little attention.
Some exceptions include: Reuters "Turkey Calls Syria Security Leak 'Villainous,' Blocks YouTube" and USA Today: "Turkey Blocks YouTube After Audio Recording Leaked," which reported: "An audio recording leaked on YouTube appears to reveal that top Turkey officials were plotting to fake an attack against their own country as an excuse to wage war on [Syria].
"Turkey on Thursday blocked access to YouTube in the same week it banned Twitter after someone posted the audio recording.
"The audio claims to be a recording of Turkey's foreign minister, its intelligence chief and an undersecretary of foreign affairs discussing plans to stage attacks on Turkey from Syrian soil to justify waging a counterattack on Syria, says Ilhan Tanir of the Turkish daily Vatanin Istanbul.
"The Turkish foreign ministry said the recording had been manipulated. At a rally in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to confirm the leak was genuine, according to the BBC."
ALI ORNEK, ornekali@gmail.com, @ornekali
Ornek is a journalist with the daily newspaper Sol in Turkey. He wrote "What You Have Missed if You Read Syria Leaks from Mainstream Media."
MUSA AL-GHARBI, (520) 234-0841, musaalgharbi@gmail.com, @Musa_alGharbi
Gharbi is a research fellow with the Southwest Initiative for the Study of Middle East Conflicts based at the University of Arizona. He recently wrote the piece "Red Hands Waving False Flags," which notes that last week "an 8-minute video began circulating on YouTube wherein senior Turkish defense officials, including Defense Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan, discuss at length their intentions to have extremist groups in Syria carry out an attack on the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, the grandfather of the Ottoman Empire's founder. This attack would then serve as a pretext for a land invasion into Syria. Just days prior to the leak, the Turkish government declared a violation of this site as a 'red line' which could prompt such an intervention.
"ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] was to be implicated in the attack, and the Erdogan administration was going to attempt to tie ISIS to the al-Asad regime, claiming the Syrian government was funding these jihadists in order to undermine the rebellion. And so, the response from Turkey would be to assist the 'good rebels,' thereby striking a simultaneous blow to ISIS and their 'patron' ...
"The irony here is that it is the Turkish government which has long supported extremist groups in Syria, especially in the border region. While they have recently scaled back this support under international pressure, the administration clearly maintains links to some of these groups, which they planned to utilize in orchestrating the attack.
"This is perhaps the most shocking aspect of the video: it seems to be authentic.
"Shortly after it began to go viral, the Turkish government shut down access to YouTube in order to minimize circulation. PM Erdogan condemned the leakers as enemies of Turkey, and launched an espionage inquiry to find out who released the tape -- verifying explicitly and implicitly that the contents of the video are accurate: the Erdogan administration has been caught red-handed in planning a false-flag attack to justify war with Syria."
See: "Turkey YouTube Ban: Full Transcript of Leaked Syria 'War' Conversation Between Erdogan Officials." DailyKos highlighted a second part of the allegedly leaked tape: "John Kerry Encouraged Turkish Invasion of Syria."
While there is periodic speculation about false-flag operations, there are documented instances of such plots. For example, see this 2013 piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "The Lavon Affair: How a False-Flag Operation Led to War and the Israeli Bomb" about an operation in 1954 by elements of the Israeli government to strike Western targets in Egypt to undermine relations between Egypt and the West.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini,(202) 347-0020,or (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
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