Doruk Erhan on the limits of Turkey's shift to autocracy

What this episode covers

Doruk Erhan, doctoral candidate at Yale Law School and visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, on the crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition CHP. The conversation is based on Doruk’s recent articles for the Verfassungsblog, including his recent assessment of the legal and political impact of cases against jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, published on the first anniversary of his arrest. Since then the crackdown has escalated, with the judicially engineered return of Kemal Kilicdaroglu as its chair. These manoeuvres have led analysts and pundits to warn Turkey is shifting to a post-democratic system of arbitrary rule, in which elections are essentially meaningless. The articles make a relatively optimistic case for Turkey’s opposition, and the interview also weighs up potential future scenarios and the international context that has facilitated the crackdown. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/