In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman examines President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's crackdown on Turkey's last credible opposition, following the arrest of Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor and journalists and the detention of leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or H.D.P.

A Crackdown on the Press and the H.D.P.

Ackerman details the terrorism charges brought against Cumhuriyet, accused of ties to the exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen, and against H.D.P. lawmakers accused of collusion with the P.K.K., charges he notes rest on questionable evidence.

Old Grievances, New Pretext

Ackerman traces Erdoğan's animus toward both targets to a 2014 Cumhuriyet exposé on Turkish intelligence and to the H.D.P.'s strong showing in 2015 elections, arguing the state of emergency declared after July's failed coup gave Erdoğan cover to settle old scores.

The Road to a New Sultan

Ackerman connects the crackdown to Erdoğan's pursuit of a constitutional referendum granting him sweeping executive powers, warning that with the H.D.P.'s seats now in limbo, Erdoğan may come to hold power closer to an Ottoman sultan's than to the republican leader envisioned by Atatürk.

Read the Original Article

This essay originally appeared in The New Yorker.

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