Over the past ten years, Turkey has become a confident player on the world stage. But unfortunately, Turkey is gradually turning into an authoritarian regime due to the policy of its president Reijip Tayyip Erdogan, who makes most of the decisions. Erdogan was first elected in 2014 and then re-elected in 2018. Until that time, Erdogan served as prime minister of the country and successfully negotiated on Turkey’s membership in the EU. At the time of the negotiations, Turkey showed economic growth and made investments in developing the country’s infrastructure, including the construction of roads, airports, and high-speed train networks. However, Erdogan’s other policies led to the fact that the EU membership was postponed indefinitely.
The image of the country’s president has never been ideal. From the first days of his tenure in power, he was associated with the Gulen movement, which the Turkish state viewed as a terrorist organization. Erdogan engaged the country in the civil war in Syria, saying that Turkey intended to prevent the Syrian democratic forces’ spread on its borders. Besides, in recent years, Turkey has become an increasingly corrupt state, forgetting about democratic principles. Following the 2013 protests, Erdogan’s government imposed censorship on the press and social media, which continued to grow. Access to critical international Internet resources was restricted, which was one of the main reasons for the suspension of EU membership negotiations.
In 2016, Erdogan took an unprecedented step by declaring martial law and attempting a military coup after the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) entered parliament in June 2015 and deprived the governing Erdogan’s AK party of its majority. This incident also led to the collapse of the president’s plans to hold a referendum on executive powers. As a result, Erdogan allied with the far-right Party of the Nationalist Movement and held a referendum on executive powers for president in 2017. These and other decisions have led to Turkey becoming perceived as an autocratic regime.