The AKP-MHP alliance is dying and the people are marching to the future

Politics Service

The latest move of the Palace regime that wants to open the door to a new era in the country, was to arrest Mayor İmamoğlu and dozens of his colleagues, including Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan and Beylikdüzü Mayor Mehmet Murta Çalık.

In conditions where the law is made a tool for the institutionalisation of the regime, where young people, women, pensioners, workers; all segments of society are declared enemies, labour chambers, trade unions are tried to be dysfunctional, journalists are arrested, all citizens who object against the Palace are detained and arrested, the ruling bloc dealt a new blow to the will of the people yesterday.

Political scientists Ayşegül Kars Kaynar and Seren Selvin Korkmaz evaluated the developments in the country after the arrest.

REPUBLIC ON HOLD

Emphasising that the regime hostile to the values of the Republic is trying to create a new country for itself, Kaynar stated that the Republic has been completely suspended with the arrest:

“The republican government, which is only a state according to some, but both a state and a form of government according to others, is based on a system of representation. The more the people take part in this administration and the more the will of the people is reflected in the government through elections, the more the republic spreads to the demos and democratises. On 19 March, the current government took the first step to show its rejection of a change of power through elections by launching investigations in İstanbul. Yesterday, by arresting the strongest presidential candidate, it openly declared that it would not give up power peacefully. With this declaration, the President suspended the Republic.”

“This twilight, in which the Republic has been suspended and the new form of state has not yet been born, is pregnant with more developments” Kaynar said:

THEIR ALLIANCE IS WOBBLING

“We are not in the period of the rise of autocracy in the country, we are in the period of decline. The People's Alliance is dying. The search for new alliances is shaky. The constitution is a nuisance. But more importantly, the walls of fear have been overcome; a national resistance has begun. Since 19 March, millions of people have exercised their legitimate right to resist in cities and localities from Muş to Çorum to defend the Republic and equality. Young people, students, the middle class and the proletariat, who have been forced to minimum wage for years, whose future has been taken away, who have been impoverished and whose voices have been silenced, have together made the ‘people’ visible again. Yes, the people, who have given political regimes their power and legitimacy for the last two centuries and who are the sole undisputed owners of sovereignty, are once again among us.

It was not only a matter of the main opposition party. It was a matter of defending the Republic and citizenship with the right to vote and be elected. However, the big bourgeoisie did not support the people in this resistance. On the contrary, with wage suppression, tax exemptions and a worthless Turkish Lira, the conglomerates, which are closely tied to the government, closed their eyes to the whole process. The pro-labour confederations also buried their heads in the sand. Moreover, the liberal West, especially the European Union, remained silent. Europe has written off Turkey's democratic forces with a pen and pushed them into the mud of the Middle East. In short, the suspension of the Republic was achieved with the silent support of national and international capital.

TIME TO BUILD THE FRONTS OF RESISTANCE LAW

The demand for equality and freedom today is the demand of the people made up of the middle class and the proletariat. If the suspended Republic is to be reinstated, it will be through a struggle in which the people must rely on their own strength and their own strength alone. Turkey has a wide repertoire of struggle. In this period when the elections have been nullified, it is possible to build new fronts based on the law of resistance. The sovereign people are among us!”

Political Scientist Seren Selvin Korkmaz also drew attention to the hasty preparation of the process and said: “We are facing a trial process that is clearly political.” “This situation is far from convincing the society and will shape the reactions towards politics and power” Korkmaz said, underlining that the process will have short, medium and long-term effects.

OPPOSITION FORCES ARE UNITING

Firstly, Korkmaz emphasised the importance of the unification of all opposition forces and said: “The opposition parties and actors, which were spontaneously separated, came together thanks to this case of the government. Even the names that were rivals yesterday met on the same side. Muharrem İnce's stance close to the CHP line, Musavat Dervişoğlu's support for Ekrem İmamoğlu together with the CHP, the reaction of names from very different political views from Ümit Özdağ to Selahattin Demirtaş to this process shows that every opposition actor now feels threatened. This situation has united the opposition both morally and strategically."

Stating that the process has also united the CHP, Korkmaz said, "While there was talk of a multi-candidate race before, it is now seen that the party is united around a single focus. This has led the CHP to enter a new organisation process and increased mobility in the field."

Finally, referring to the mobilisation of the whole society, Korkmaz said: "This process mobilised not only the CHP but also the society. Looking at the beginning of the protests, it is understood that the social demand forced the CHP to take a bigger action. This situation revealed the accumulated anger and fatigue in society. The motivation of young people to take to the streets is not limited to the issue of İmamoğlu; many issues such as the restriction of rights and freedoms, lack of merit, oppression of freedom of expression have triggered this mobilisation. Especially the mobilisation of a large segment of people who seem to be apolitical but actually follow politics closely shows how deep this sense of injustice has deepened. The youth who took to the streets by taking risks reveal that this process is a breaking point that will affect not only the present but also the future. After the 2023 elections, there was a disconnect between the social opposition and the political opposition. This process eliminated that disconnect and brought young people and politicians together again. It is clearly seen that we have entered a period that will have significant effects on Turkish politics in the short, medium and long term."

Note: This article is translated from the original Turkish version titled Cumhur ölüyor, halk geleceğe yürüyor, published in BirGün newspaper on March 24, 2025.