It’s not “like” a coup, it is a coup!
As the government took down the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, the CHP Ankara Provincial Chair and the Mayor of Bornova were taken into custody. Trade unionist Aksu was arrested; a woman comedian was detained on a flimsy pretext, and celebrities were taken into custody in a drugs raid. The Palace, which shied away from the ballot box despite calls for elections, has targeted all sections of society as it continues to lose ground. However, no regime has ever succeeded in silencing the country’s dissenting voices and social protests with the stick of the judiciary.
Politics Service
The AKP has taken down Bursa Municipality. The CHP Ankara Provincial Chair and the Mayor of Bornova have been detained. The reason: the cooperative case in which former Izmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer is also being tried.
How can one get through a day with all this! Woman comedian Tuba Ulu is at the prosecutor’s office on charges of insulting Sultan Suleiman. A joke on stage turned into reality at the police station. Trade unionist Başaran Aksu was sent to prison following a complaint by an employer. Turkey’s most famous TV actors and presenters were taken from their homes in the dead of night on the pretext of a drugs raid. That wasn’t enough; one of the two individuals detained for the language they used whilst filming an ISIS attack has been arrested.
In any country with a democratic government, none of this would be possible. It might even be an extremely rare occurrence in the military junta regimes established after a coup. But since these events are now regarded as routine in Turkey, they do not trouble the regime in the slightest. On the contrary, this has become a form of governance for them.
It is worth stating the regime’s name once again: the Presidential Government System, which came into force following a referendum held approximately nine years ago, has now transformed into an authoritarian Palace Regime. The repressive regime is making itself felt more clearly with each passing day. The regime is constructing itself not merely to exert control over opposition forces, but over all sections of society. As election day approaches, we will witness a regime whose violence is escalating. Headlines such as ‘democratic constitution’ or ‘EU harmonisation programme’ hold no meaning beyond being a deception. Today, no section of society feels safe. You do not need to be a journalist, trade unionist or head of a municipality to be arrested; you could be arrested for a social media post from ten years ago, a commercial agreement made ten years ago, or a public office you held ten years ago.
No regime has ever been able to discipline Turkey’s culture of democracy and tradition of resistance with a stick. The fate of the People’s Alliance will be no different.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled ‘Gibi’ değil, bu bir darbedir!, published in BirGün newspaper on April 10, 2026.
