Ahead of a congressional hearing on Turkey’s democratic deterioration scheduled for Wednesday, written testimonies obtained by Kathimerini paint a bleak picture of political freedoms, judicial independence, minority rights and democratic governance under the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership.
The hearing, organized by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, is titled “Can Turkey Find Its Way Back to Freedom? Authoritarian Consolidation versus the Defense of Turkish Democracy,” will feature Henri Barkey, an adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations; Michael Rubin, the director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Serkan Golge, a former political prisoner and NASA scientist.
Together, the testimonies depict a country that has moved beyond democratic backsliding toward consolidating a highly centralized system of rule. In this system, political opposition faces mounting judicial pressure, media freedoms continue to erode, and key state institutions have become increasingly subordinate to the presidency’s priorities.
Henri Barkey’s testimony will focus on what he describes as Turkey’s gradual transformation into a system of personalized rule.
