Apr 3rd, 2017, 03:35 PM

The Turkish Referendum

By an Anonymous Reporter
Image credit: Flickr/Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey is at risk of becoming a dictatorship if Erdoğan's referendum is passed this weekend.

WHAT WILL THE REFERENDUM CHANGE?

Turkey's President Erdoğan has proposed to change Turkey's parliamentary-based system to a presidential democracy through a referendum that will take place on April 16, 2017. Currently, Turkey's Prime Minister, Binali Yıldırım, is the head of government, and the role of President Erdoğan is seen as mostly ceremonial. The powers of these leaders are currently still limited through a few checks and balances that are standard within a parliamentary system.

With Erdoğan's proposed referendum, the ornamental role of the president will shift into a powerful executive role by eliminating the role of the prime minister.

In the proposed referendum:

The President will...

  • Have executive presidential power.
  • Be head of the executive, head of state, and also leader of the political party.
  • Be able to appoint two-thirds of the country's senior judges.
  • Be able to appoint all cabinet members.
  • Be able to dismiss parliament.
  • Be able to declare a state of emergency.

The Parliament will

  • Lose powers to summon ministers for scrutinizating.
  • Still be able to start impeachment proceedings against the president if there is a two-thirds majority vote by MPs to do so.

The Prime Minister will...

  • Be eliminated.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Selahattin Sönmez

WHO IS ERDOĞAN? 

Erdoğan jumped into politics in the 1970's, becoming a member of Necmettin Erbakan's Welfare Party - aka the Islamist Welfare Party - during the collapse of the Turkish economy. In 1994, Erdoğan was elected as Mayor of Istanbul. Erdoğan was later imprisoned in 1998 for enticing violence and religious hatred. His Islamist Welfare Party was seen as too fundamentalist and endangering the secularism of the state. 

Just two years after his imprisonment, Erdoğan founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a former member of the previously banned Islamist Welfare Party, Abdullah Gül. After the Islamist Welfare Party was banned in 1998, Gül became a member of the Virtue Party, which was then also banned for secularism in 2001. The AKP has dominated Turkish politics since its founding by the two fundamentalists. Currently, the AKP party leader is the Prime Minister of Turkey, Binali Yıldırım, and Erdoğan, the former AKP party leader, is now the President of Turkey.


Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Turksolu

HOW IS THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT DIFFERENT FROM THE U.S?

The U.S. is a constitutional republic with the president as both head of state and head of the government. The president and vice-president are members of party leadership. Turkey is a parliamentary republic with the prime minister as head of the government and the president as head of state. In the Turkish system, the prime minister is appointed by the president and approved by the parliament. In order to run for president, the candidate must resign from their political party—the rule was made as a means to make the executive less partisan. 

The referendum will allow Erdoğan to remain as head of the AKP as well as the head of state, just as the U.S. president is the head of their party. However, the U.S. president cannot pick the congressional candidates. This power still lays with many actors in the U.S., including voters. If the Turkish referendum passes, Erdoğan will be able to handpick members of parliament from his own party. These chosen members will likely share his political views, and if they oppose him, Erdoğan will also have the power to kick them out of the party, as he already has a tendency to do. 

The constitutional change will transform this ornamental presidency into an executive one. Critics claim that the consolidation of power into one office could mean an swift transition into a dictatorship.

PUBLIC OPINION

Arguments in favor of the referendum

With the absence of the prime minister as a leading figure alongside the president, decision and policy making will be expedited. 

The threat of terrorism will be lowered as Erdoğan will likely gain more control over the military. Turkey is facing many security fronts including ongoing military battles and attacks with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), threats from ISIS and other splinter groups, and political riots that have been occurring within recent years. Current Prime Minister Yıldırım says that with the sole power Erdoğan will have if the referendum is passed, "there would be no weakness in fighting terror."

The term of the president will be limited to two terms if the referendum is passed. Therefore Erdoğan's presidency will theoretically end in 2029, at the latest. This could be seen a sign of stability for the country.  


Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Hilmi Hacaloğlu

Arguments against the referendum

The lack of checks and balances being proposed could likely result in a dictatorship. Many believe that Erdoğan already has authoritarian ways, which is evident in the occurrence of the failed coup attempt last year. The failed coup is seen as a sign that Erdoğan needs tighter reins over the country he governs, hence his need to implement the referendum.

Since the coup, many in opposition to Erdoğan have been arrested and silenced, especially journalists. Sinan Can, a journalist documenting Erdoğan outside of Turkey has feared to go back. Reporters Without Borders has also ranked Turkey 151 out of 180 countries, meaning the freedom of the press is extremely limited in Turkey in recent years.

In another form of silencing, the voting on the referendum might not be an entirely fair process. The main opposition parties are CHP and HDP, the latter party being a pro-Kurdish party, that has been labeled by the Turkish government as having ties to terrorism. Since November 2016, Erdoğan has kicked HDP out of Parliament, arrested their leaders for creating terrorist propaganda and has removed immunity for MPs. Because of this use force, voters might vote in favor for the referendum out of fear of seeming to be supportive of these parties and/or alleged terrorists.

Video credit: Youtube/Comedy Central UK 

Bribery has already begun, as MHP party leader Develt Bahceli, who was once strongly against the referendum stated,"the Turkish nation has never allowed a Hitler." However, he has now switched to back the referendum after talk of being promised a top position within the government if the referendum were to be passed. As a result of his flip-flop on the referendum, multiple officials in his MHP party have resigned.  

Finally, even with the proposed maximum of two terms, Erdoğan could potentially hold a position of power in Turkey for a total of 26 years by 2029.  The proposed maximum two-term limit could also be be easily extended by Erdoğan at a later date if the referendum is passed, due to the vast powers he will acquire with the referendum. As journalist Noah Feldman has stated, "that’s not a recipe for democracy, to put it mildly."