Turkish democracy
Podcasts
From Competitive Authoritarian to Hegemonic: Berk Esen on the Decline of Turkish Democracy and the Prospects for Its Revival (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our latest episode in the special series produced in partnership with the Journal of Democracy, Berk Esen turns to the other side of the equation: how Turkey’s opposition is pushing back against an increasingly hegemonic regime. This episode builds on Part 1, where we explored the regime’s authoritarian escalation through the courts, media, and economic coercion.
25.08.2025
News
Rebels with a Welfare Cause: Turkey’s Youth Rising against Authoritarianism
After Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s imprisonment in March 2025, youth-led protests swept Turkey. Fueled by digital activism and pop culture, this new resistance converges with social policy innovations in opposition-run cities, marking a generational shift in how dissent and governance challenge authoritarianism.
22.08.2025
News
A Doomed Bid to Erase Dissent: İmamoğlu and the Future of Turkish Opposition
As the crackdown on Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu intensifies, the stakes for the democratic opposition in Turkey grow higher. This analysis explores how legal repression, symbolic erasure, and authoritarian overreach may backfire — entrenching resistance, destabilizing governance, and echoing global patterns of democratic decline, without yet sealing Turkey’s fate as another Venezuela.
10.06.2025
News
All Together or None of Us – Part II: Turkey’s New Democracy Movement and Future
When Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested, Turkey’s democratic future reached a breaking point. In this two-part series, Murat Somer examines how that moment united the long-divided social and political opposition, sparking an unprecedented wave of mobilization and strategic innovation that holds the potential to turn into an enduring and consequential democracy movement. Part I recounts the events that triggered mass resistance. Part II explores the movement’s evolving strategies, emerging alliances, and political stakes for Turkey’s future. ← Missed the backstory? Read Part I: The Arrest that Sparked Turkey’s Democratic Uprising
24.04.2025
News
All Together or None of Us – Part I: The Arrest that Sparked Turkey’s Democratic Uprising
When Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested, Turkey’s democratic future reached a breaking point. In this two-part series, Murat Somer examines how that moment united the long-divided social and political opposition, sparking an unprecedented wave of mobilization and strategic innovation that holds the potential to turn into an enduring and consequential democracy movement. Part I recounts the events that triggered mass resistance. Part II explores the movement’s evolving strategies, emerging alliances, and political stakes for Turkey’s future.
23.04.2025
