The president’s targeting of opposition parties has shattered any illusions that Turkey is a western-style democracy

Any chance Turkey could join the EU by 2020, as Brexit campaigners have asserted, went up in smoke on Wednesday after the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, signed a draconian new law that in effect demolishes any notion that his country is a fully functioning, western-style democracy.

EU rules dating to 1993, known as the Copenhagen criteria, insist all applicant states must adhere to a system of democratic governance and uphold other basic principles, such as the rule of law, human rights, freedom of speech, and protection of minorities. Turkey is struggling to meet these standards.

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The new measures make EU membership even more of a chimera. They are expected to eviscerate parliamentary opposition to Erdoğan’s ruling neo-Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) by allowing politically inspired, criminal prosecutions of anti-government MPs.

The main target is the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), which Erdoğan accuses of complicity in terrorism, although other opposition parties are also affected.

By signing the new law, Erdoğan, who has dubbed the EU a “Christian club”, has signalled the end of any realistic chance of Turkey joining the union for the foreseeable future. Critics say he may also have sounded the death knell for Turkey’s secular democracy and set the stage for intensified armed conflict with Kurdish groups.

Erdoğan’s move comes against a backdrop of heightened violence between Turkey’s security forces and militants belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) and its radical offshoots.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The scene of a car bomb attack in Istanbul that killed 11 people on Tuesday. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

In the latest of a series of attacks, 11 people died and many more were badly injured on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded in central Istanbul. On Wednesday, the PKK was blamed for another lethal bombing in Mardin province.

Yet the new law, while officially justified as vital for the fight against terrorism, is widely seen as opening the way for Erdoğan’s contentious proposal to amend Turkey’s constitution and create a powerful executive presidency, which he will hold. The changes require a two-thirds parliamentary majority in favour.

The HDP, which denies any ties to the PKK, is the third-largest party in parliament with 59 MPs. Its surprise success in the first of two general elections last year caused the AKP to briefly lose overall parliamentary control. The unexpected setback infuriated Erdoğan and led him to escalate the confrontation with the PKK.

Leading HDP members and supporters have frequently faced police intimidation and prosecutions, and some have been jailed over their verbal support for Kurdish rights. At present, 101 MPs from the HDP and the main opposition party, the Republican People’s party (CHP), are under investigation.

HDP leaders believe most if not all the MPs under investigation could end up in jail now their immunity has been lifted. Given the president’s track record, additional charges are likely to be brought against other MPs and parties, thereby emasculating the parliamentary opposition to Erdoğan and destroying what remains of Turkey’s system of democratic checks and balances.

The HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, both accused of supporting terrorism, have vowed to fight on in parliament “till the end”.

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Coming on top of Erdoğan’s controversial military crackdown on Kurdish areas in the east and south-east of the country, newspaper and other media closures, prosecutions of leading editors and journalists, and his recent remarks urging Muslim women to forsake careers and have more children, the new law may result in a permanent freezing of Turkey’s already mostly moribund EU accession talks.

The European parliament recently expressed serious concern about “serious backsliding” in Turkey over rights and press freedom, part of a perceived anti-democratic trend under Erdoğan’s presidency. EU governments, backed by the US, have pressed Erdoğan to de-escalate his campaign against the Kurds.

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Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who helped forge a deal with Ankara over Syrian migrants last autumn, faced sharp criticism at home after she acquiesced in Erdoğan’s prosecution of a German comedian for allegedly insulting remarks. Another row over a satirical German song ensued.

Erdoğan’s latest actions place more pressure on the already shaky migrant deal. If it collapses – and Turkey is threatening to scrap it – the EU will have even less incentive to advance accession negotiations. Leading EU countries such as France and Germany strongly oppose Turkish membership and have in any case indicated they could ultimately use their veto, if necessary, to prevent it.



Last winter’s promise, part of the Merkel-Erdoğan deal, to extend visa-free travel for Turks in Europe – a pet hate of the leave campaign in Britain – has not been implemented because of EU objections to Erdoğan’s draconian anti-terror laws.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kurdish supporters of the HDP party shout anti-government slogans during a rally in Istanbul. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

The HDP and CHP parties oppose Erdoğan’s plan for an executive presidency. They see it as part of the president’s attempt to acquire quasi-dictatorial powers at the expense of parliament and representative democracy. His political trajectory over the past 15 years is often likened to that of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s authoritarian president.

They point to Erdoğan’s unchallenged control over the armed forces, purged through a series of trials of alleged coup plotters, his control of state media, his manipulation of the judiciary, and his recent sacking of Ahmet Davutoğlu, the moderate AKP prime minister who was critical of the proposed constitutional changes.

Meral Danış Beştaş of the HDP said a new government administrative decree further compromised the independence of the judiciary. “Judges and prosecutors who are known to make decisions for the government have been promoted and those who have made decisions against the AKP have been exiled,” Beştaş said.

Opposition groups are also critical of draft measures introduced into parliament this week that would extend the legal immunities of members of the armed forces participating in anti-terror operations. Turkish security forces have been accused of illegal killings and other abuses in the south-east where thousands of PKK militants and civilians have died or been displaced since October last year. Critics say the new army protections amount to impunity.



