What is it about this country— Turkey? For example, the president can Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his administration accused the United Arab Emirates of financing the 2016 coup attempt in Istanbul, then establishing good relations; calling Syria's Bashar Assad a murderer, then re-establishing a top-level dialogue with him; calling Egypt's president a murderer, then reappointing ambassadors to the country; or criticize Saudi Arabia for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and then transfer the case to Saudi Arabia – they offered credit lines, after all. Moreover, condemn Israel for the atrocities in the Gaza Strip – at the same time that many loyal business people in the circle around Erdoğan are increasing their profits and the volume of exports to Israel.
The new Turkey
I meet in Istanbul Turkish Can Cemgil, who 20 years ago obtained a doctorate in International Relations at Sussex University in Great Britain. Now he teaches this as well as international political economy, social theory and Marxism at Bilgi University. He emphasizes that everything is "with a Marxist perspective", and I ask him how politically active he can really be in Turkey... He replies that he has been more or less active since his student days.
A video with excerpt from the interviews is here:
Regarding today's 'new' Turkey, he believes the regime is in a 'reproduction crisis': "When you add all this together, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep it going. There are several crises, such as economic problems, inflation and the housing situation for many here."
I ask him to be more specific: "The government is increasing interest rates. And the minimum wage has stood still for the past two years – previously it was increased twice a year. Through tax policy and by limiting wage increases, they basically put the entire burden on the working class. At the same time, the number of ultra-rich has increased very quickly.”
Cemgil has together with Eren Duzgun recently published essay Class, State and Geopolitics: Explaining Erdoğan’s Turkey. Turkey, once hailed by the liberal international community as a role model in the region, has become an increasingly 'unpredictable' and 'incomprehensible' actor over the past ten years with the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, or Justice and the Development Party) in power. For example, Turkey has been fighting US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria and keeping Sweden at its gate NATO, while the country has actively participated in several NATO missions and sold armed drones to Ukraine for use against the Russian invasion. They have kept the Bosporus Strait closed to Russian military vessels, while protesting the US and NATO presence in the Black Sea and buying S-400 missile systems from Russia, all with the intention of acting as a peacemaker in the conflict in Ukraine.
"Turkey appears as a school example of nationalist authoritarianism, economic irrationality and geopolitical aggression."
According to Cemgil: "If you ask President Erdoğan and the people around him, there is nothing surprising in this, because this is precisely what the 'new Turkey', as they like to call it, is all about. Geopolitically, the new Turkey is both a staunch NATO ally and an independent regional actor fighting against Western imperialism. Politically, it is an electoral democracy, albeit with Turkish characteristics. But for several critical commentators appears Turkey now, no matter what Erdoğan themselves choose to believe, as a school example of nationalist authoritarianism, economic irrationality and geopolitical aggression.”
President Erdogan and Gezi Park
President Erdoğan has ruled for two decades now. His politics were different before 2013, according to Cemgil: "People were positive about him then AKP and all his political campaigns somehow managed to pacify large sections of the population – by basically being accommodating to everyone. For example, he was a supporter of LGBT marriage at that time. Now he is strongly against it. He was very open to all kinds of lifestyle choices. He was weaker and needed the support of the population, since the institutions were almost completely against him – the judiciary, the military and the bureaucracy, what we might call the establishment, and the Turkish state. He received so much support from liberals, including left-liberals, and also pro-Kurdish groups. He challenged the petrified structures of the Turkish state. Such a policy made life easier for many and gave them some hope for the future."
The shift came with the protests Travel-parking in May 2013. By that time, Erdoğan's party had managed to fill the bureaucracy, judiciary and military with its own allies. And according to Cemgil, things went relatively well in the economy, where interest rates were historically low: "The Turkish lira was very solid. And the credit lines were open. People could get access to easy and cheap credit. There was an abundance of credit, including international credit. But at the end of May 2013, two things happened. The Federal Reserve started to tighten the market, and then the Gezi Park events occurred.”
He challenged the petrified structures of the Turkish state.
When the protests broke out, people realized a lot, according to Cemgil: "Erdoğan was an authoritarian at heart. He just wanted to gather enough strength to consolidate his position and the Turkish state.” People understood where authoritarian the state could be: “I remember saying to myself and my friends, 'These people don't know what the state can do to them. That is why they are so brave when they march against the police and break the police barricades.' But then they met the real face of the state. That's when it started to go downhill."
How about the attempt coup in 2016, I ask – as we remember the soldiers on the bridge in Istanbul, where parts of the military tried to overrule Erdoğan (see also the Norwegian documentary film A gift from God, 2019). Cemgil explains: “Erdoğan used this to his own advantage and let it all happen under controlled circumstances. He then attacked a number of military, political and civilian critics.” Some might have thought that Erdoğan himself had a hand in this game: “They knew that a coup was going to take place. He just wanted to understand the full extent of it so he could clear elements out of the way—former allies and members of the formal establishment. He found a way to fight back. Senior military officers were retired when he no longer needed them.”
Freedom of speech
We change the subject, to freedom of expression in Turkey. How are the mouths of those who are critical silenced, and does it only happen to a few radicals? Cemgil says that he is sometimes surprised to see that less radical people are silenced: "When I hear stories about my colleagues or journalists who are interrogated, imprisoned or put on trial because of issues of freedom of expression, I can think that this person is not is so radical. They do this not just to silence or deter them, but to cut the line between the critics and the larger public.”
Then there are individuals who are taken, or is the suppression of freedom of speecha more systematic structural one, I wonder in our conversation: "Of course, the authorities put a lot of effort into controlling the whole narrative. So they have bought up almost all major established media outlets. There are some oppositionists, but they are all aligned with the government when it is a so-called national security issue or something."
He explains that the situation for them intellektuell to is very bad, and not only the immediate risk of being imprisoned or silenced by the authorities, but the 'chilling effect' – where you start to censor yourself: "They imprison key people, for example academics for peace. They find ways to keep them in jail, and some are fired from their jobs, or have their passports confiscated. But all of this is actually illegal. Yet the authorities use such strategies to make life difficult for them.”
In a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, it was said that by combining all these practices, the state basically sentences these people to civil death – where by being subjected to such persecutions lose their social relations as citizens. "If you are allowed to return to work after ten years via a court, this is too long in a human life. Life has changed.”
But many alternative magazines and newspapers are trying to become online publications – they are critical of a state that controls the established media.
Cemgil is one of the founders of Turkish Freedom of Expression Association# – which helps media that are subject to government blocking. According to him, every year thousands of websites are blocked in Turkey: "This is an unnecessary financial and labor burden. They silence them without necessarily shutting them down. Basically, the Constitutional Court must rule on violations of freedom of expression in all cases brought before the court. Here we contribute with the legal work. We have well-established legal researchers in the association."
I mention the group behind P24, which I will visit the next day: "It is an online medium, one of the few, relatively large ones. They have been there for a while, and they have been doing alternative media work."
Capital, women and Kurds
From Bilgi University, About Palestine
At the same time MODERN TIMES was invited to the conference The Changing World Economy, and Today’s Imperialism, which was organized by IIPPE (International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy) at Bilgi University in Istanbul in September. Here Cemgil gave the lecture The Geopolitical Economy of Turkey’s Militarisation and the Poly-Crisis of the Global Order. MODERN TIMES also participated in a panel (see picture below) where we discussed the Gaza situation for 60 listeners as well as an opportunity to show an upcoming film about Palestine. Other themes during the conference were lectures such as The Rise of China and Its Implications to the World; Generative AI and teaching pluralist economics; og States and/vs Markets in Capitalism. But also financialization processes, investment in green restructuring, extraordinary monetary policy and the current ideology of austerity. Or how about a title like Why do states encourage and facilitate cryptocurrency mining on their territory?
Back to Cemgil, I ask him here in his office – what about feminist rights? “I'm not the right person to talk about it, but everyone can see that it's not going so well. Females have suffered a lot. When it came to the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Violence in Intimate Relationships – 2018), Turkey abandoned a convention that bears the name of the country's largest city – because they needed the support of some radical, religious political parties. Erdoğan had to do it to stay in power.
One thing Cemgil and Eren Duzgun mention in the aforementioned essay is the Kurdish problem and a possible peace process. Does he envision new opportunities? "It is completely impossible for this regime today to make peace with the Kurds. But the answer is more complicated, because Erdoğan is a very pragmatic political figure. He was allied with the United States, then with Russia. He does what keeps him in power. But the conditions for peace to be possible are that he basically dissolves his current coalition since 2015 with the ultra-nationalist support of the political party, Nationalist Action Party. AKP's small coalition partner has connections to many criminal organizations, drugs, gangs and the mafia. Erdoğan is unhappy about this, but cannot do anything about it. And without them he cannot remain in power. But if he has problems with his current coalition partner and needs the support of the Kurds again, then it is possible."
I bring up the language, which is denied Kurdsne, as a Kurdish teacher in a Kurdish region has to teach Turkish to the Kurdish students. Absurd? “The early AKP made some reforms in this area, at least they introduced Kurdish as an optional language course. Before that, it was not fully recognized.”
great Policies
According to Cemgil, who calls Turkey "a geopolitical tenant", with their geopolitical position in the Middle East, they have played great powers against each other for over two centuries: "Turkey in the 1800th century was not a viable state. Actually, the country should have collapsed long ago, but was able to stay afloat by playing great powers off against each other. As France in one case, against Russia, so another case with France and Great Britain against Russia, or with Russia against the Governor of Egypt. It was called at the time 'the Eastern Question' – a question of who benefits from it. And, for example, when Turkey, which was supposed to be a staunch ally of NATO in the 70s, invaded Cyprus, the US introduced an embargo against Turkey. Soviet Union then gave huge amounts of money to Turkey, provided a lot of expertise, installed factories – and Turkey, an anti-communist bulwark, then accepted all of this. Turkey can easily switch sides for pragmatic reasons.”
And what about the new BRICS-cooperation, I ask: "Turkey does not want to become a full-fledged BRICS country, but wants to balance the Western allies by showing that they have an alternative."
"A political animal"
In our conversation, Cemgil describes Erdoğan as "a political animal". His politics may seem incoherent and irrational, but there is an underlying logic. Erdoğan knows what he is doing, even if something can appear both stupid and irrational. The interesting thing is that such a leader, who has a way of talking to the population, usually convinces his constituents that what they did was right at the time. An example was the relationship with the Kurds, according to Cemgil: "He convinced 80 percent of the population that the peace process was necessary – in 2013. Today, 80 percent of the population believes that those who participated in the negotiations are terrorists. Here you can see that over 60 million people allow themselves to move from one extreme to the other. It means you are a very smart, political and pragmatic politician.”
"İmamoğlu is the secular version – he is not as authoritarian as Erdoğan."
I end the conversation by asking about the future, then the opposition politician Contact Ekrem directly – Istanbul's mayor – is a marked presidential candidate for change in the 2028 election: "He has a way of talking to people. People listen to him, even the extremely conservative ones. And the whole thing is mostly about prosperity and welfare, not exactly about religion and tradition, as many people think. İmamoğlu is the secular version – he is not as authoritarian as Erdoğan.”
I put forward an idea for Cemgil – what if he was in the leadership role, what would he do with politics? “Well, I would start with the immediate problems like the housing crisis and the latest round of orthodox economic policies applauded by the IMF, the World Bank and the Western financial institutions – which have ruined for working class. I would also start with the whole tax policy. And of course, full freedom of speech. Moreover, I would have restored and reformed the democratic institutions…”
See interview with Mustafa Ünlû simultaneously from Istanbul.
Besides https://www.nytid.no/tyrkias-militaerindustrielle-kompleks/
The interviews – and a short film with them – are financially supported by Fritt Ord.
The movie is available at https://vimeo.com/1032275137
See also separate article about Turkey
militarization
