The United States’ ‘retreat’ from ‘championing liberal democratic values’ has emboldened leaders, such as the Turkish President, to slide towards authoritarianism, an expert has warned.
Major civil unrest has rocked Turkey for more than a week following the arrest of the popular Istanbul mayor and opposition politician Ekrem Imamoglu.
In a damning assessment, a lecturer at King’s College London has claimed that President Trump’s recent actions have encouraged Erdoğan and other leaders to use brutal methods to crackdown on dissent.
The unrest started after Mr Imamoglu was taken into custody just days before he was due to be formally nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 2028 presidential nominee. The vote went ahead and he secured the candidacy with over 15million votes.
Since his detention an estimated one million Turks have taken to the streets across the country waving the red crescent moon flag of Turkey and calling for his release.
The demonstrators also wish to make clear their opposition to Turkey’s strongman leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whose grip on power has only become tighter following his over 20 years in power.
In response Erdoğan has initiated a brutal crackdown on the largely peaceful demonstrations which has seen over a thousand people arrested, the banning of mass gatherings and the use of water cannons and pepper spray by police.
However, despite Amnesty International condemning Erdoğan’s crackdown as a ‘blatant assault’ on freedom of expression, world leaders have not been so quick to criticise his actions.
One of the few responses has come from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who gave a tepid order for Turkey to maintain its democratic values.
Dr Andi Hoxhaj told MailOnline that the lack of response from the international community is having major repercussions in Turkey.
He said: ‘Erdoğan feels more emboldened now, and so do other leaders with authoritarian tendencies – after the US retreated from democratic values – and now they feel that there are fewer consequences if the likes of Erdoğan and others assault democratic norms.’
On top of this, Dr Hoxhaj pointed out that under President Trump America has stopped funding several democratic watchdogs and NGOs, such as Freedom House, and has dropped several human rights and democratic monitoring instruments.
‘Which has translated that we don’t care as much as we did a decade ago about upholding democratic values,’ he said.
It is not only the US that has, perhaps unknowingly, encouraged Turkey’s response to the protests.
Dr Hoxhaj said: ‘The European Union, which usually champions democratic values, is not viewed as supporting the protests for the very values that the EU was founded on, as in Turkey, where its interests are intertwined with managing migrations.
They are therefore looking the other way on issues that the protests are calling out.’
Without the West championing democratic values, this also means the protests are not encouraged to put more pressure on the government.
The modern geopolitics of Europe are also playing a major role in this response.
With the growing tensions within NATO, which Turkey is a member state, over Trump’s calls for Europeans to up their defence spending, coupled with the increased rift between Western nations’ stances on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is more incentive to not criticise member states.
Especially in light of the fact Turkey’s large military, which is the second biggest in NATO, plays a large role in European security not just for Ukraine but also in the Middle East.
Dr Hoxhaj said: ‘Erdoğan has seen himself now as a key important strategic partner in terms of it say within NATO and how it is working on Ukraine and Syria.
‘Thus, even if he cracks down on democratic norms, the overarching geopolitical objectives to have a peaceful outcome in Ukraine as well as a smooth transition in Syria, there is less pressure on Turkey if it moves further into undemocratic practices.’
Turkey is not the only country which has seen major protests in recent weeks.
In not so dissimilar scenes, Serbians have took to the streets in massive rallies in the country’s capital Belgrade.
They are to protest corruption and the autocratic turn of the country’s longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic.
Like Erdoğan, Vucic has led a brutal crackdown against the protesters – which included the alleged use of a sound cannon to disperse demonstrators.
While Dr Hoxhaj acknowledges the country appears to be on the verge of a new election this outcome has been done without support from the European Union which has not voiced support for the protests.
He said this was due to the Bloc’s festered interest in a major lithium deal for batteries between the EU and Serbia – which has an estimated lithium reserve of up to 158 million tons.
The response to major protests is in stark contrast to today’s mellow reaction from Western nations.
In 2013 when Erdoğan faced similar protests in Istanbul’s Gezi Park over his authoritarian tendencies and control of the media the EU responded sternly by temporarily suspending Turkey’s accession talks into the Bloc.
In another example, the EU support for Ukraine’s Euromaidan demonstrations in 2014 led to the resignation of the county’s president Viktor Yanukovych.
At the time one EU official said they were ‘happy that democracy in Ukraine has reached.’
This not for the lack of influence in each country, with Dr Hoxhaj pointing out that the EU continues to have sufficient tools to support democratic and rule-of-law reforms to put sufficient pressure on world leaders.’
But due to the previously mentioned changes in the modern geopolitical dynamics.
On top of this, Dr Hoxhaj added that some leaders have learnt from Russia’s playbook of how to tackle dissent and to avoid scrutiny.
As we have to learn that we have appeased Putin for over two decades in exchange for favourable gas deals, hoping to control him and eventually bring about change in Russia,’ he said.
‘However, we should not think that such an approach might work, as both leaders in Hungary and Serbia are displaying clear signs of autocracy and shift to Putin’s style of governance.’
