Turkey - A regime cannot survive by oppressing half of the people

By Baskın Oran 

Up to some point, those who were part of the regime of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan contributed to democracy in Turkey. They eliminated military control of the state and introduced reforms with a view to European Union accession. But they started to ruin everything and now we are experiencing this current process.

A number of people, including Ali Bulaç and Hasan Cemal, make the same analogy -- stating that this regime is like a truck with no brakes. But current President Erdoğan's regime cannot sustain this. It would be a disaster for both itself and Turkey as well because a regime cannot survive by oppressing half of the people.

I believe that there are certain reasons for the current state of affairs. First, I see that Erdoğan's mind is not comfortable; second, Erdoğan has no rival; third, I believe that he feels overconfident because of the 2011 election victory. If he was able to think reasonably, none of this would have happened.

I pay attention to Erdoğan as a person, and now I see there is a tendency towards totalitarianism. Turkey is a strange country where the daily agenda and discussions change every 15 minutes. It is no longer a safe and stable country.