Fellows in the Press: Murat Somer’s Op-ed on Turkish News Website T24

Our Fellow Murat Somer discusses the current political situation in Turkey on Turkish news website T24.

“Can Turkey rebuild democracy, rule of law and society through politics – a grand bargain and compromise led by elected civilian politicians ? In other words, can it do this job through talk?”, Murat Somer asks in the article.

According to him, there is a new situation in Turkey after the elections in May 2023 and March 2024. With the society being more exhausted and fragmented than ever, and the opposition more hopeful, the new opposition leader has initiated a new approach, and his party “has attempted to enter into a dialogue with the government under the name of “normalization” and embrace the entire society, including the government’s base.” Murat Somer argues that the opposition will have a very difficult task; “democratic politics cannot succeed only as a defender of truth, it also has to be a chess player.”

Read the article here (in Turkish).