Abstract
Turkey has gradually become an authoritarian regime. Numerous studies of Turkish politics consider Turkey a hybrid regime and have tried to understand how and why this regime change has happened. So far, however, there has been little discussion about the correlation between the authoritarianization of the country and its human rights situation. This chapter deals with the human rights situation in Turkey as a reflection of the authoritarian characteristics of the political regime, examines the existing correlation between the regime’s character and its human rights practices as well as focuses on discursive justification strategies for the use of repression. It puts forward the claim that legitimation strategies have consolidated the regime and contributes to its durability. It is argued that Turkey’s human rights policy is closely related to the general features of the current political regime as well as its trajectory from relatively well-functioning democracy to competitive authoritarianism, and the shift in its human rights policy happened through a legitimation construct of the “new Turkey”. In other words, the deterioration of human rights was not only a result of the regime’s transformation but also an instrument of regime consolidation.
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Notes
- 1.
Milli IstihbaratTeskilati (MIT).
- 2.
A NAZI term for the idea that a family shares the responsibility for a crime committed by one of its members, justifying collective punishment.
- 3.
A similar title as “Fuhrer” or “Duce”.
- 4.
Erdogan distinguishes politics that correspond with Muslim and Turkish people’s values and politics that has its roots in foreign cultures or countries. He emphasizes that he is a native and national leader who acts according to his nation’s expectations and is not controlled by foreign powers.
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Caman, M.E. (2021). Authoritarianization and Human Rights in Turkey: How the AKP Legitimizes Human Rights Violations. In: Aydin, H., Langley, W. (eds) Human Rights in Turkey. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57476-5_9
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