March 27, 2025 - 1:00pm
Istanbul
For over a week now, major protests have been taking place across Turkey. The catalyst for the discontent was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s imprisonment of his main political rival, the popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was jailed on trumped-up corruption charges by a judiciary long accused of political bias.
The imprisonment wasn’t surprising, but the scale of the response was: streets and campuses filled with angry protestors, most of them young, demanding regime change. And while the spark may be the injustice meted out to İmamoğlu, the fire burning across Turkey is a result of deeper anger built up over decades. This isn’t just about one man — it’s a full-scale rejection of the system. So far, over 1,400 protestors have been arrested, including journalists and lawyers. Today, the BBC has reported that its correspondent Mark Lowen was deported for “being a threat to public order”.
Erdoğan has tried to neutralise his most likely challenger in the next presidential race. Constitutional experts argue that İmamoğlu’s candidacy remains legally intact for now, despite ongoing investigations. But the youth aren’t merely reacting to dodgy political manoeuvring. Their discontent is bigger and bolder.
In a country where free speech is under severe pressure, where public debate is dead and journalists are arrested, fear has long silenced the people. Only the economy, crumbling under inflationary pressures, has united grievances across the political spectrum and given Turkish voters an impetus to voice their concerns.
The last time Turkey witnessed this kind of unrest was in 2013, during the Gezi Park protests. Then, it was mostly Left-leaning young people challenging media censorship, authoritarianism and the erosion of the country’s secularism. Crowds are once again on the streets, but this time it’s different. This generation is angrier, more anarchic, leaderless, and almost post-political. They reject Erdoğan — but they also reject the opposition.
They chant anti-terror slogans, wave Turkish flags, and some carry images of controversial nationalist icons like Enver Pasha and Talat Pasha. They’re not ashamed of nationalism or even its far-Right fringes. Many express sympathy for the ultranationalist and anti-immigration Zafer Party but refuse to be tied to any group. Their message is simple: nothing works and everything must be torn down.
Erdoğan’s response has been typical: label the unrest a “fifth column” operation, accuse the opposition of corruption, and target İmamoğlu and CHP leader Özgür Özel.
As for Erdoğan’s future, under current law he can’t run for a third term in 2028. Presidents are limited to two five-year terms unless early elections are called by a three-fifths parliamentary majority, something Erdoğan’s alliance doesn’t currently have the numbers to achieve. He would need support from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which until recently would have been highly unlikely. Last month, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan called on the group to disarm and dissolve, signalling an end to the 40-year conflict between militant Kurdish groups and the Turkish state. Some think it may be part of a backroom deal to unconstitutionally extend Erdoğan’s time in office.
It is clear that the Turkish leader does not want to stand down. He may follow Vladimir Putin’s example in Russia, where elections are merely ceremonial and any real opponents are swiftly imprisoned. In 2020, the Russian President rewrote the rules to allow himself to remain in power indefinitely. If Erdoğan tries the same, it may just tip the disillusioned generation of young Turks over the edge. Protests could turn violent and even greater repression would surely turn the country into a geopolitical pariah, despite it being a vital pillar of Nato which boasts the alliance’s second-largest military.
In the capital Ankara on Tuesday, Erdoğan tried to urge calmness “in these sensitive days” at a Ramadan fast-breaking gathering. While it is too early to say if a new Turkey is being born from the authoritarian rot, there will no doubt be more sensitive days to come, especially for the President.
Dora Mengüç is a freelance journalist based in Turkey who writes on international relations, economics, and environmental issues.
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SubscribeSo two NATO members – Turkey and Romania – are seeking to eliminate the main electoral threat to the regime through trumped up charges, and France may be about to join them. It’s not exactly a legal of democracies that people are being asked to pay for, and potentially die for.
These are our allies, one of which is supposedly democratic and a member of the EU, yet the elected President is the ‘threat to democracy’ because he wants to compromise with Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Makes perfect sense. I have to wonder what Orwell would have to say about our modern times. Probably some version of “I told you so”
“mostly Left-leaning young people challenging media censorship, authoritarianism and the erosion of the country’s secularism”
How odd. Those sound like right wing protesters to me.
Good point…over here, protesters with those views would be described as “far right”!
To those who think having a “strong man” in charge instead of trying to uphold genuine democratic principles, however imperfectly enacted, look no further.
Tell that to the Chinese, they’ll laugh at you. Tell that to the Russians, they’ll call you a CIA agent. You haven’t learned anything from the experience of introducing democracy in Afghanistan.
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You know, nations are different. Very different.
Irrelevant comment based upon a skewed reading of mine.
Turkey is hankering for a return to empire.