By Halil Karaveli

February 22,  2018

Turkey is at an historical juncture: the need to try something new has acquired urgency. The right, in secular or Islamic shape, that has dominated Turkey throughout its history has demonstrated that it perpetuates authoritarian rule. Can the left provide a democratic hope? Ideally, a “Progressive front” would coalesce to challenge the ruling "Nationalist front" and the hold of authoritarianism. However, the war against the Kurds in Syria boosts the right-wing nationalist parties, and also the Turkish social democrats support it. To provide an exit out of Turkey’s impasse, the mainstream Turkish left needs to reinvent itself. It must emancipate from its father figure, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

By Halil Karaveli

February 3, 2017

Historically in Turkey, there is a relationship between the rise of emancipation movements and “constitutional engineering”, between class- or ethnic-based challenges to the established order and the imposition of authoritarian constitutional arrangements in response. The authoritarian constitution of 1982 was the answer to the challenge of workers and peasants in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, a presidential system is supposed to neutralize the Kurdish challenge. However, it may be that Turkey’s ethnic fissure may prevent it from developing either democracy or stable authoritarian rule.