Tens of thousands of people crowded the streets of Istanbul for another night of protests in late March of 2025, waving red Turkish flags and wearing masks to protect against the police force’s pepper spray and crowd control spray barrage. In the capital city of Ankara, the police came armed with tear gas and water cannons, bearing striking resemblance to the anti-government Gezi Park protests of more than a decade prior. All over the country, citizens took to the streets where the media, court system, and ballot box seemed ineffective in stopping Türkiye’s twenty-year authoritarian slide.

Under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule as prime minister and president, Türkiye has experienced sweeping democratic erosion over the past two decades, one of the first and most blatant examples of the current third wave of backsliding. Erdoğan and the AKP (Justice and Development Party) have led an organized assault on independent media sources and judicial independence while deepening polarization by espousing hate speech.

Türkiye’s media landscape currently ranks 159th out of 180 countries with over 90% of traditional media under state control. Universities and municipal opposition leaders are constantly targeted, and Erdoğan has wielded the legislature to implement over 500 laws undercutting judicial and media freedom. Türkiye slid into an electoral autocracy in 2013, and has continued as Erdoğan and the AKP continue to undermine Türkiye’s institutions and tilt the political playing field in their favor.

But all hope for Türkiye’s democracy, and other democracies experiencing erosion, is not lost. Resistance to the Erdoğan regime has maintained a presence in local and national government, found multigenerational support in academia, and been energized by young Turks looking for a more democratic future for their home.

“Rights, law, ​justice”

Former Istanbul mayor and opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu sits in the notorious Silivri prison, just outside the city he once governed. His arrest on March 19, 2025 on corruption charges sparked the largest protests Türkiye has seen in more than a decade. Waves of mobilization in support of İmamoğlu spread across more than half of Türkiye’s provinces, and over 1,100 protesters were arrested and detained in the week following his arrest. In fact, the very same day İmamoğlu was stripped of his title as mayor and jailed, over 15 million Turks voted in the Republican People’s Party (CHP) primary to elect him the opposition party’s contender for president, symbolically showing their support for secularism and anti-authoritarianism through the ballot box.

Through his political advisers, İmamoğlu continues to campaign online and maintain his voice in Turkish politics from behind bars, even through heavy media restrictions. A year after his imprisonment, thousands of Turks returned to the streets of Istanbul with the CHP, still the most prominent anti-Erdoğan political force. Even while jailed, stripped of his position and university diploma, and heavily censored, İmamoğlu has retained his voice as an opposition leader and continues to criticize Erdoğan’s foreign policy and proximity to Trump, silencing of civil society, and suppression of democratic processes.

Academics turn their back on Erdoğan

The academic community at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, one of Türkiye’s most prestigious higher education institutions, mobilized faculty, alumni, and students to oppose political encroachment by the Erdoğan regime. After Erdoğan bypassed the faculty election process to appoint his own rector of the university in 2021, peaceful but visible protest emerged as activists in opposition to the decision who held signs and stood facing away from the rector’s building on campus, rain or shine.

Universities had long been a target of Erdoğan’s scrutiny, with many others across the country seeing budgetary cuts or fired deans and presidents framed as fighting secularism or Western liberal influence in Türkiye. Regardless of their own personal religious beliefs, many students taking an active role in the protests saw Erdoğan’s rector appointment at Boğaziçi as undemocratic and unwanted. Academic spaces and freedom of speech continue to be a site of resistance and unification across generations of alumni and students of Boğaziçi.

A future worth staying for

Almost a quarter of Türkiye’s electorate is too young to remember a time before Erdoğan. Türkiye’s adult Generation Z population (aged 18-29) has very little faith in the AKP, blaming government overreach for the economic hardship and struggles they are coming of age inheriting. Many feel frustrated with the economic hardship, unemployment levels, and financial insecurity many young people are facing. This frustration drives unrest, a sense of dissatisfaction with Erdoğan and the AKP, and a high percentage of young people considering emigration.

In addition, young people are increasingly turning away from state-controlled traditional media to other sources of news, like social media sites. And instead of turning away from government completely, many are throwing their support behind the institutions resisting control in Türkiye, energizing the political challenges of the CHP, rallying around educational freedom, and continuing to demand accountability and true democracy.

A democratic Türkiye?

With a continuously slipping grasp on public opinion ratings, Erdoğan and the AKP must look forward to the next election cycle. The 2024 elections saw local positions dominated by opposition candidates, and it remains unclear whether further attempts at polarization, not unification, will allow the AKP to remain in power.

İmamoğlu’s fate is unclear as the Turkish justice system slowly continues to churn, and the CHP looks to leverage a dissatisfied and distrustful Turkish population to oust Erdoğan. Even with the continued lack of media freedom, academic challenges, and economic stagnation, it’s clear that the activism of young Turks will continue to have a major role to play in challenging the increasingly autocratic system they have grown up under.

Resistance to populist, authoritarian, and hegemonic leaders attempting to undermine democracy is crucial. Whether by organized political parties, institutions like the media or higher education, or by the grassroots mobilization of outraged citizens, the case of Türkiye is one that democratic states across the world must learn from to prevent or deal with democratic erosion in their home state.