Hundreds of police and undercover security men lined the road to Cemile, some 20 km from the capital of the northwestern Anatolian province of Sakarya, 120 km from Istanbul. They were there to protect Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the man who has boasted of reviving the Ottoman Empire. As part of his campaign, Erdogan had been fulminating against his adversaries at a convention attended by large numbers of people. The crowds held up banners and posters in support of the prime minister's Justice and Development Party (AKP). The scene has become familiar these days, repeating itself at every city where Erdogan puts down his helicopter. It highlights the gross disparity between the candidates standing for Turkey's presidential elections, scheduled for Sunday. Only Erdogan has access to all the powers of office and facilities of the state, and he and his party are using them to their full advantage. Turkey under Erdogan's AKP Party has become barely distinguishable from the general run of third world dictatorships. Capitalising on its parliamentary majority, the ruling party has pushed through legislation tailored to protecting its interests and keeping itself in power. It has amended the constitution to make it possible for the prime minister to run for president without first having to resign. This has given Erdogan a huge advantage over his electoral rivals. As the noted economist and writer Mehmet Altan put it, the AKP government has “destroyed the structure” of the state and the sovereignty of law. Although the Turkish press is privately owned, Erdogan has managed to bend most of the print media to his interests. He has done this through an astute manipulation of the newspapers' need for funding, lower taxes, rescheduling of debts and providing easy-term loans. The government-run television (TRT) is the most shameless in its obsequiousness, according to Murat Yetkin, a journalist for the Radikal newspaper. Thanks to the AKP and government strongman Bülent Arınç, who purged the broadcaster of troublemakers who sought more journalistic neutrality, TRT has now become Erdogan's personal mouthpiece. It has been trumpeting his accomplishments 24/7, among them that Turkish exports have quintupled under his rule to over US$160 billion, while skirting around the fact that Turkish imports have soared to some US$20 billion more than that figure. TRT broadcasts live coverage of every speech made by Erdogan. It follows him on his tours and along the campaign trail. The coverage shows him surrounded by officials. Sometimes the station accompanies the footage with soundtracks that have a Bollywood ring to them. Routinely, viewers see the prime minister cutting ribbons or performing similar rituals for the inaugural ceremonies of major projects. Some of these openings have been intentionally delayed so they can coincide with the run-up to the presidential polls. This was the case with the inauguration of the construction of Istanbul's third international airport and the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway, officially opened two weeks ago. Erdogan does not allow journalists to ask him questions about his electoral platform. At the end of his campaign rallies, he rushes off to meet with local officials to coordinate strategy for the upcoming vote. As for the rival candidates in the presidential elections, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Selahettin Demirtas, they can count on coverage from a couple of the smaller private satellite TV channels and a handful of daily newspapers. This discrepancy between the media outlets available to Erdogan and those of his challengers raises grave concerns about the credibility of the election. A European Parliament delegation has voiced its concern that Erdogan has been abusing the powers of his office in order to smooth his path into the presidential palace. In its coverage of the visit of the six-member delegation to Ankara, the Zaman newspaper cited their call for stricter campaign regulations governing the candidacies of individuals who continue to hold political office. The delegation also expressed its concerns about disparities in campaign expenditure, access to public resources, and a marked media bias. In view of the absence or insufficiency of local and international observers, the delegation urged Turkey to pass legislation providing adequate supervision of the balloting process to ensure the probity of the polls. But Erdogan and his long-term career partner and AKP cofounder, outgoing-president Abdullah Gül, appear deaf to such concerns. They continue to boast of Turkey's democracy and the transparency of the polls. But international agencies have been reporting a severe deterioration in civil and political liberties in Turkey. One Gallup poll called the Turkish media “not free”; press freedoms have declined sharply due to government pressure over the past two years. Restrictions on the press became more severe following the eruption of the Gezi Park protests in May 2013 and the graft and corruption scandals that broke out in December that year. Journalists continue to be arrested because of their attempts to expose stories that the AKP government has been trying to suppress. Kenneth Weinstein, president of the US Hudson Institute, has criticised the deteriorating state of the Turkish media, which he said has stirred grave concerns in Washington. Some foreign journalists have even left Turkey because of pressure from the authorities, he added. In 2014, Freedom House, a US-based nongovernmental organisation, for the first time ranked Turkey's media as “not free,” and Reporters Without Borders now ranks Turkey at number 154 in terms of media freedom, between Iraq and Gambia. Erdogan and AKP officials seem indifferent to such reports, confident that Erdogan will sweep the elections in the first round with 55 to 58 per cent of the vote, becoming Turkey's twelfth president. They also believe that he will remain in power until 2023, coinciding with the centennial of the foundation of the Turkish Republic. There are also plans to amend the constitution to transform the Turkish system of government from a parliamentary to a presidential one and thus to ensure that Erdogan remains the country's strongman. Erdogan cannot envision himself without having the ultimate say in the nation's affairs. This attitude is likely to continue into the presidency, where he will have control over all important decisions. Such forecasts could, of course, be intended to intimidate the opposition and dissuade its supporters from voting, on the grounds that the results are a foregone conclusion. If Erdogan wins the forthcoming elections, he may feel he has entered seventh heaven, but in fact he is more likely to lead Turkey into a dark tunnel with no light at the end.
