The First Day of a Darker Turkey—Could Your Country Be Next?

Turkey has crossed a new threshold with the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the last viable opposition leader. If you think this is distant, think again—no country is immune.

Ekrem İmamoğlu. Src: Reuters / Murad Sezer.

Another threshold in Turkey’s authoritarian descent has been crossed. No independent judiciary. No functioning parliament. No free press. No freedom of speech. Speaking up comes at a cost. If you’re lucky, you lose your job. More likely, you end up in jail—maybe for insulting the president, maybe for being part of a terrorist organization you didn’t know existed, or perhaps for attempting to overthrow the government without realizing it. Persecution is a given.

Then there was the mirage of an opposition—permitted to exist so long as it remained manageable. When its voice grew too loud, it was crushed. When it stayed within limits, it legitimized the regime, giving it the international veneer of toleration. Albert Hirschman mapped this dynamic long ago in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty—the very framework that inspired the name of this newsletter.

This has been Turkey’s reality since 2011. I use the past tense because today, something changed.

At dawn,…