The Regime’s fantasy of a moderate opposition
The wave of objections sparked by the 19 March coup has shaken the regime, striking fear into its core. Pro-government figures have started pushing for a “conciliatory opposition” whose boundaries are drawn by the government. However, the social opposition will not back down.
Politics Service
Unable to stem the wave of dissent spreading across the country, the government and its loyalists have rolled up their sleeves. Realising that the society, which rose up after the 19 March coup, cannot be subdued through repression and force, the regime has now shifted its focus to reconciling the opposition with its own authority. Following the physical attack on CHP leader Özgür Özel, pro-government media and columnists have amplified his statements in an effort to absorb public anger.
PANIC AMONG PRO-GOVERNMENT FIGURES
Among them, columnist Nagehan Alçı asked, “What happens if young people who support İmamoğlu and CHP are confronted by young people defending the government?” Meanwhile, staunch government supporter Abdulkadir Selvi drew comparisons between Özel and other senior figures in the party, writing: “Since the moment of the attack, Özgür Özel has issued very level-headed statements. He avoids remarks that would play into the hands of provocateurs and instead warns against falling into their trap. He emphasises that the attack targeted civilian politics.” However, Selvi accused Ali Mahir Başarır and Ekrem İmamoğlu of “continuing to provoke.”
Spurred on by the operations targeting İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the social opposition has shaken off its inertia and spread across the country. Women and men, young and old, students, workers, the unemployed and pensioners alike have united to build a collective wall of dissent against the regime. Following a femicide in Şişli, thousands of women gathered at the crime scene in protest. In high schools, students defending their teachers turned their schools into protest sites from İstanbul to Ankara, Denizli to Trabzon.
SUBJECT OF THE RESISTANCE
On 19 March, university students who broke through police barricades quickly ignited the spark of resistance. Students began gathering at nearly every university, boycotting classes and flooding the streets. From the masses filling Saraçhane and Maltepe to farmers arriving with their tractors in Yozgat and Konya, people struck the regime at its weakest point. Conventional forms of opposition were cast aside. In their place emerged creative banners and placards, newly composed protest songs, nationwide product boycotts, viral social media posts, youth collectives in universities, and the energy seen on 1 May — all reflections of this growing social opposition. After years, society showed that it is once again the true subject of politics.
CANNOT RESIST FOR LONG
Every protest in the country today is influenced by the winds of change unleashed on 19 March. The actions of women against violence, of ecological defenders for nature and animal rights, of unappointed teachers for merit, of workers against the minimum wage, of farmers against fuel price hikes, and of youth against precarity, repression, and reactionary impositions all share one common thread: Opposition to the regime.
This shared and united resistance from below carries a potential that the government cannot easily overcome and cannot resist for long. Fearing this new form of politics, the regime is trying to soften social opposition and confine it within boundaries it defines, in an effort to prolong its survival. To achieve this, it seeks to criminalise the legitimacy of protest and divide the opposition.
However, social opposition is fully aware that not a single step can be taken back that nothing will return to normal unless this government is gone and the regime changes. The anger accumulating along the fault lines of society holds the potential to defeat the regime.
Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Rejimin hayali ılımlı muhalefet, published in BirGün newspaper on May 7, 2025.
