End of a 75-year right-wing adventure: The regime became the state
The country is moving towards an authoritarian Islamist regime led by the People's Alliance, supported by the US. In the new regime, we do not separate the state from power. Turkey did not arrive at this situation overnight. The right-wing conservative governments that have dominated the country's last 75 years have aided and abetted this new regime.
Erdoğan has built his regime by appearing to fight against the ‘old Turkey’ for years. Even today, he continues to fight against the “old”. In this way, Erdoğan continues to claim to represent the ‘new’ by starting history from himself. What a huge lie. Turkey has been living in a grand illusion created by those in power for years. There is no ‘new’ regime; on the contrary, it is the result of a transformation that began with the transition to a multi-party system and has continued for 75 years.
The AKP concealed this reality when it came to power; it is doing the same thing today. The process presented by the one-man regime as a ‘new phase’ and described as ‘Turkey without terrorism, the Middle East's game changer, a model country’ is nothing more than a new straitjacket that the right-wing conservative ruling coalition is trying to force upon the country.
JUST 10 YEARS
It has been 75 years since Turkey transitioned to a multi-party system. During this period, Bülent Ecevit served as prime minister for 6 years and 7 months, while İsmet İnönü served for 3 years and 3 months. Setting aside these 10 years, which were mostly spent under coalition governments and whose progressiveness is debatable, the remaining history is one of right-wing, nationalist-conservative, and anti-leftist governments.
Looking at those who have governed Turkey, the primary responsibility for unemployment, poverty, destitution, theft, corruption, oppression, and violence—in short, for all the problems plaguing the country today—lies with right-wing governments. These right-wing governments have consistently nurtured the next regime; they have acted as enablers. They have many things in common: they implemented pro-American, imperialist policies in the country; they were the executors of market-oriented and anti-worker policies. They plundered not only people but also nature. They were adept at using religion and consistent in their reactionary policies. They succeeded in gradually destroying the progressive legacy of the Republic.
In this context, Erdoğan's criticism of ‘those before us’ is meaningless. Devlet Bahçeli was in the government immediately before the AKP; now he is a partner in the regime. Another supporter is Tansu Çiller. Ecevit's party, the DSP, is the AKP's coalition partner. Özal, Erbakan, Menderes, Türkeş are all mentors and guides of this regime.
ERDOĞAN IS NOT ALONE
The ruling party is engaging in polemics with the CHP, citing the ‘country's dark past’; in reality, it is shadowboxing with the idea of the republic. It prefers this method because it cannot yet engage in open conflict. There is a tradition in right-wing politics of gaining power through repeated lies; so much so that the statement attributed to Cindoruk, ‘We used to say that İsmet İnönü was a deserter, and they believed it,’ still holds true today.
The AKP has succeeded in making people forget that right-wing parties were in power before it and that even its current supporters were part of them in the past. This lie is used not only to consolidate its own community and keep social polarisation alive, but also to conceal the 75-year journey of right-wing governments transforming Turkey according to imperialist plans and the state's hold on power. Looking at the chorus gathered around Erdoğan, it appears he has been successful to a certain extent.
Not only Erdoğan and the People's Alliance, but many political groups are trying to obscure the fact that the multi-party system that began in the 1950s has transformed into a one-man regime over the years. As in the recent debate on the ‘Terror-Free Turkey’ process, the regime and the state are deliberately emphasised separately. Sometimes the concept of the normal state, sometimes the deep state, and sometimes the state mind are used to try to convince society that there is a state separate from the one-man regime.
Without addressing this situation, no development in Turkey and the region can be properly understood. It is impossible to even oppose the government.
Approximately 75 years of uninterrupted right-wing conservative rule has now led to a one-man regime. It has taken over the state with all its institutions or made it in its own image. There is no longer a separate mechanism called the state. The rooms of the palace, the Erdoğan-Bahçeli meeting, the sect-foundation, the AKP district and provincial buildings have replaced what is called the state. Therefore, it is useful to simplify: the one-man regime is the natural result of the uninterrupted right-wing rule over the last 75 years of the republic. The one-man regime grew and remained standing with US encouragement and support, just like other right-wing regimes.
The regime has now reached the point where it has become the state. There is no separate state mechanism left. Now they are trying to transform the state entirely into an authoritarian Islamist apparatus. There is no alternative but to fight the regime for a freer society and a more just and peaceful country.
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HOW MANY YEARS DID THEY RULED?
Tayyip Erdoğan: 22 years and 8 months
Süleyman Demirel: 10 years and 1 month
Adnan Menderes: 10 years and 5 days
Turgut Özal: 5 years, 10 months and 20 days
Tansu Çiller: 2 years, 8 months and 9 days
Mesut Yılmaz: 2 years and 12 days
Necmettin Erbakan: 1 year and 2 days
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled 75 yıllık sağcılık serüveninin sonu: Rejim devlet oldu published in BirGün newspaper on November 27, 2025.
