About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


19 AGORA Int'l J. Jurid. Sci. 268 (2025)
Erdogan's Turkey: Between the Dream of Democracy and the Authoritarian Temptation

handle is hein.journals/agoraijjs2025 and id is 272 raw text is: AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/iour/index.php/aijjs ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677 Vol. 19, No. 1 (2025), pp. 268-277 ERDOGAN'S TURKEY: BETWEEN THE DREAM OF DEMOCRACY AND THE AUTHORITARIAN TEMPTATION A. NISTOR, F.-A. POPESCU Anastasia Nistort, Felix-Angel Popescu2 1 Faculty of History, International Relations, Political Sciences and Communication Sciences, University of Oradea, Romania. E-mail: nastea.nistor3E gmail.com 2 Faculty of Economic Sciences, Agora University of Oradea, Romania. http~s:/orcid~orgO000- 0002-3020-2098, E-mail: felixangeopescuT mai1&om Abstract: Over the past two decades, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has profoundly reshaped Turkey's political and social landscape, influencing the country more than any leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern republic. Becoming prime minister in 2003 and president in 2014, Erdogan was initially praisedfor his economic reforms and negotiations with the European Union, positioning Turkey as a model of democracy in the Islamic world. However, his path has been marked by an authoritarian drift, characterized by control over the press, undermining the independence of the judiciary, and suppressing the opposition. The 2016 coup attempt accelerated the consolidation of power, transforming the presidency into a dominant executive role. A recent example is the 2025 arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, on terrorism and corruption charges, which triggered massive protests and criticism from the European Union and Western allies. This paper analyzes how Turkey under Erdogan evolved from a promising democracy to an authoritarian regime, examining the role of the instrumentalization of Islam and political repression. By exploring the historical context, the stages of the regime's evolution, and the impact on democracy, the paper investigates the tension between the democratic aspirations of Turkish society and the authoritarian temptation that defines the country's present. Keywords: Turkey, democracy, authoritarianism. Introduction The modern history of Turkey is marked by tension between secularism, an ideology that promotes the separation of religion from the state and Western-style modernization, and Islamism, a movement that advocates the role of Islam in politics and society. The Tanzimat reforms of 1839 initiated the modernization of the Ottoman Empire, introducing Western institutions and practices to strengthen the state. Under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, secularism became the central ideology, inspired by the French Jacobin model. His policies, such as the banning of religious symbols and the replacement of Islamic traditions with positivist science, marginalized religious communities, especially in rural areas of Anatolia, where Islam was deeply rooted, transforming it into a symbol of resistance (Yavuz et al., 2019:1-9). During the multi-party period (1950-1980), Islam was co- opted to mobilize political forces, and under Turgut Ozal (1983-1993), it was used to legitimize neoliberal economic reforms. Military coups, especially the one in 1980, exacerbated political 268