by Shravan Balaji | Mar 14, 2018 | University of Pennsylvania
On April 16, 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) celebrated the passage of their landmark Constitutional referendum by a margin of 51.4% to 48.6%. 85% of registered voters turned out for the election, with over 98% of the...
by Sam Wieske | Mar 13, 2018 | University of California, Los Angeles
A few decades ago, Turkey was the poster-boy of a democracy in the Islamic world. Fast forward to present day and Turkey is far from being a paragon of democracy, in light of the recent coup and referendum. Most scholars define Turkey’s current trend as “democratic...
by JULIA NICOLE ROBINSON | Mar 12, 2018 | University of California, Los Angeles
The recent referendum passed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey will lead to long term democratic backsliding. The redistribution of power to the executive office, the dissolution of checks and balances of higher power, and the change of procedure for...
by George Golden | Feb 14, 2018 | Columbia University
The Turkish society has become increasingly polarized since the coup attempt of 15 July 2016. However, Erdogan and his rather conventional opponents, particularly secularists, nationalists and even the Kurdish minority, have come together in a rare consensus that...
by Cody Duane-Mcglashan | Oct 30, 2017 | Brown University
In the past fifteen years, Turkey has gone from economic ruin to burgeoning democracy held up as a model for the world to a state in the midst of severe democratic and liberal backsliding. All these stages have occurred under the leadership of Racep Tayyip Erdogan,...