Professor Cihan Tugal on the outcome of the general election in Turkey

Voices of the Middle East and North Africa

On May 28th, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected for a third term by winning 52% of the popular vote- His main rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu garnered 48%. Two weeks earlier, the right wing islamist-nationalist coalition consisting of Erdogan’s rullingJustice and development party AKP and its allies had won the majority in the parliamentary election. we spend the hour discussing how and why Erdogan was able to secure a third term in office despite a worsening economy and now chronic hyperinflation, the government's disastrous response to the deadly earthquakes, as well as his increasingly authoritarian rule. What happened? In his new article in the new left review, our today’s guest, UC Berkeley sociologist Cihan Tugal writes “There are obvious institutional reasons for the resilience of Erdoğanism. The government has spent years monopolizing the mainstream media and judiciary. Prisons are overflowing with activists, journalists and politicians. The Kurdish opposition, the only truly organized non-right-wing force in the country, has seen its democratically elected mayors replaced with state-appointed officials, who have consolidated the government’s rule over the eastern and southeastern provinces. Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg. The regime’s endurance is not simply a result of its authoritarianism; its popularity runs much deeper than that. Shahram Aghamir spoke with professor Tugal about the outcome of the recent general election in turkey