TRAGEDY OF TURKEY UNDER ERDOGAN

Erdogan's rise reflects democratic decline, with increasing authoritarianism, media suppression, and opposition suppression, undermining Turkey's secular republic.

- JOHN DOBSON

"Democracies always become tyrannies," argued the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his seminal work, the 'Republic' around 375 BC. Alive today, he would have plenty of evidence to support his theory. Take Hungary, for example. Under its prime minister, Victor Orban, the country is fast moving from a democratic state into an authoritarian one. In Russia, democracy lasted a mere 10 years or so after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When Vladimir Putin came to power at the turn of the millennium, democracy was quickly extinguished. Putin immediately took control of the media, appointed obedient judges and ordered the lights to be extinguished of anyone who might be a threat to his reign, leading figures such as Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny. Now consider Turkey, which is fast becoming an authoritarian state under its president, Recep Erdogan. Huge crowds across the country are brutally treated as they protest to keep the flame of democracy alive.

The founding father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, will be turning in his grave. When Ataturk emerged victorious from what was later referred to as the Turkish War of Independence, he set about abolishing the Ottoman Sultanate and in 1923 proclaimed the foundation of the Turkish Republic. As president, Ataturk initiated a rigorous programme of political, economic and cultural reforms, specifically aimed at building a republican and secular nation-state. An extensive compulsory education system was developed across the country, with free primary schools. Even the alphabet was changed into a Latin-based one. Women received equal civil and political rights for the first time under his presidency, fulfilling his ambition to create a homogeneous and unified nation.