The democratization process in Turkey

In this paper, I would like to concentrate on the obstacles to the democratization process in contemporary Turkey. Democratization began with the establishment of Republic of Turkey but it has never been properly and in the strict sense completed. My question is what these obstacles are; the Kemalist ideology is one of these obstacles, which is considered a secular, nationalist and modern movement in collaboration with western values, and which takes its name from the founder of the Republic of Turkey: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Kemalism1 is based on secularism, nationalism, populism (halkçılık), reformism (or revolutionism), Statism/State control (devletçilik/etatism), and republicanism which all featured in the party 2 program of 1931. As an ideology, on the one hand it advocates liberal values such as freedom of the individual, human rights, and the democratic right of citizens; on the other hand, it still insists on the fact that Turkey has just one ethnic identity which is Turkish. This approach leads this ideology to limit itself with a nationalist and secular idea excluding other ethnic groups. Another obstacle is the weakness of non-governmental organizations, that is the weakness of civil society. In particular, the closure of institutions within civil society by the authority of the current government has damaged the environment in which the democracy can be improved and discussed. This situation causes power to be centralized/gathered in one hand, which has created an authoritarian and dangerous system for democracy like a presidential system. I will try to discuss how these two obstacles endanger democracy by means of an analysis of the concept of democracy.

In questo articolo mi soffermerò sugli ostacoli al processo di democratizzazione nella Turchia contemporanea, un processo iniziato con l'istituzione della Repubblica di Turchia, ma mai completato. L'ideologia kemalista è uno di questi ostacoli. Il kemalismo si basa sul secolarismo, sul nazionalismo, sul populismo, sul riformismo, sullo statismo e sul repubblicanesimo, tutti valori presenti nel programma del partito del 1931. Come ideologia, da un lato sostiene valori liberali come la libertà dell'individuo, i diritti umani e il diritto democratico dei cittadini; d'altra parte, insiste ancora sul fatto che la Turchia ha solo un'identità etnica, quella turca. Un altro ostacolo è la debolezza delle organizzazioni non governative, ovvero la debolezza della società civile. In particolare, negli ultimi anni il governo ha limitato l’azione di queste organizzazioni, danneggiando l'ambiente democratico e comportando una concentrazione del potere. Proverò a discutere di come questi due ostacoli mettano in pericolo la democrazia mediante un'analisi del concetto stesso di democrazia.