Is Erdogan today the same Erdogan from the early 2000s?

From legal reforms to suffocating the law; from EU candidacy to admiration for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; from Kurdish television to Kurdish workers being beaten in construction sites for speaking Kurdish; from democracy to authoritarianism.

To delve into the political climate of 2004, let's first briefly recall how Erdogan became a member of parliament and later prime minister...

As is known, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the founders of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which was established on August 14, 2001, and was elected as the party's chairman.

However, he was still under a political ban and could not run in the 2002 general elections.

In the 2002 general elections, the AKP received 34.43% of the vote, and the 58th government was formed by Abdullah Gul.

The Abdullah Gul government submitted a bill to the Turkish Grand National Assembly to lift Erdogan's political ban.

Although the bill was passed by a majority vote, it was vetoed by then-President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on the grounds that it was "subjective, concrete, and personal."

The bill was reintroduced to the parliament without being changed.

The bill was approved again and was reluctantly approved by Sezer this time.

Thus, the legal obstacle to Erdogan's candidacy for parliament was eliminated.

The support given by Deniz Baykal during the process of lifting the ban later became a serious polemical topic in the media.

We may revisit this issue in the context of press history in the future.

On March 11, 2003, at 3:00 PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan took his oath as an AKP Member of Parliament in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, and by 4:00 PM, Abdullah Gul, the Prime Minister of the 58th Government, submitted his resignation to the President.

About an hour after this resignation, President Sezer received Erdogan in his office and tasked him with forming a new government.

Thus, on March 14, 2003, with the submission of the Cabinet list to the President and its approval on the same day, the 59th Government of the Republic of Turkey was formed. Important changes also occurred in the composition of the Cabinet during the formation of the 59th Government of the Republic of Turkey.

The sources I researched to investigate the time when Erdogan was Prime Minister 19 years ago summarize the period as follows: "In 2004, the main agenda items were Turkey-EU relations, Cyprus, Iraq, local elections, and US presidential elections."

Here are some of the main headlines:

-The "Annan Plan" was put to a referendum in Cyprus. It was approved in the TRNC, but rejected by the Greek Cypriot side.

-The EU issue largely dominated the domestic agenda throughout the year. Changes were made to the constitution, as well as to basic laws such as the 80-year-old Turkish Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and Penal Enforcement Law. State Security Courts were abolished... A major legal reform was carried out.

-Radio and television broadcasts in different languages and dialects traditionally used by citizens in their daily lives began. Broadcasts on Radio-1 and TRT-3 began to be made on Mondays in Bosnian, Tuesdays in Arabic, Wednesdays in Kurmanji, Thursdays in Circassian, and Fridays in Zaza.

-Following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Cassation ordered the release of former Democracy Party MPs who were retried.

-After discussions focused on Cyprus at the EU Summit in Brussels, it was decided to start negotiations with Turkey on October 3, 2005...

Even these headlines instantly give a sense of Turkey's tumultuous world winds...

And today, in 2023?

A debacle called the Presidential Government System is being experienced...

And...

Erdogan is still in power... This time as the President.

"There is an AKP government that has moved away from the laws of harmony with Europe. A party that came to power through elections and has been in power for 20 years, but has now abandoned the fundamental principles and ideals that ensure its legitimacy, and does not see any harm in suspending democracy."

I wonder... How can this sharp denial politics, where a political party turns into something completely different, be described, and how can it be defined?

Wikipedia explains it as follows:

"During Erdogan's tenure as Prime Minister, the broad powers of the 1991 Anti-Terrorism Law were reduced, and a democratic opening process was initiated aimed at advancing democratic standards and expanding ethnic and religious minority rights in particular." Immediately following this sentence is the phrase "breakaway":

"However, the process did not last long."

And it continues like this:

"After the process, European officials stated that more authoritarian methods were used especially regarding issues such as freedom of expression, press freedom, and minority rights, particularly for the Kurdish minority."

"Reporters Without Borders observed a continuous decline in press freedom during Erdogan's final years as prime minister; Turkey, which was in 100th place for press freedom in Erdogan's early years, fell to 154th out of 179 countries in the Press Freedom Index in 2013."

"Freedom House also changed the country's Press Freedom Score, which was 48/100 in 2006, to 55/100 in 2012 after a period of improvement."

We know that authoritarian regimes start suffocating freedoms by first choking press freedom, and they know it too.

From 2004 to 2023…

From legal reforms to suffocating the law…

From becoming freer to destroying freedom…

From being a candidate for EU membership to admiring the Shanghai Cooperation Organization…

From Kurdish-language TV to Kurdish workers being beaten for speaking Kurdish on a construction site…

From democracy to authoritarianism…

If a foreigner were to read this article, they would be surprised by what has happened over these 20 years and would surely ask to confirm:

"Is this the same Erdogan from back then?"

* Mehmet Altan: His first pieces of writing were published when he was 15. He worked as editor-in-chief, writer, television programmer, and commentator for 20 years at Sabah (Morning) and six years at Star. He was a professor at Istanbul University for over 30 years. He has been a professor since 1993. Altan has authored over 40 books. He was arrested after July 15, Articles 19, 26, and 28 of the Constitution being disregarded. He was imprisoned for 21 months. The Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights determined that his rights had been violated. He has been a KHK victim since October 29, 2016.

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