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As student protests continue at İstanbul’s Boğaziçi University, one of the country’s most prestigious universities, President Recep Erdoğan has been trying to mobilize his base by deepening polarization in the country. Until now, the response of Bogazici students had limited the effectiveness of Erdoğan’s authoritarian populism. This younger generation, aged below 30, has emerged as the third actor in this polarized political field, giving a glimpse of hope for Turkey’s future.
The problems and socio-political demands of young people are often treated as a “non-urgent” or “scarcely important” matter. However, many studies indicate that millions of young Turks are beginning to demand a radical overhaul of the systems we live by and are capable of acting as force to transform Turkish politics.
Facing a changing main opposition, Erdoğan doubles down on polarization
January 8, 2021 Share
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to pursue a policy of polarization as he loses ground amid growing economic pressure in the country. After the first Friday prayer of 2021 at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine Christian cathedral turned mosque turned museum that was converted back into a mosque last July, Erdoğan unleashed his symbolic populist discourse by targeting female politicians with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) who wear headscarves. Although this “old and perpetual debate” in Turkey seems to have returned to the national discourse by Erdoğan’s making, the course of the debate does not appear to be going the way he expected.