The puppy, populism and the dance:
Elections in Turkey between sanity and insanity
From the far right to the far left, people in Turkey are distancing themselves from the current political system. For years, they have been very well aware that an authoritarian regime does not stop at just seizing the state powers and dismantling the political system. Rather, it continues its attacks and tries to conquer the human soul, invading every part of daily life with its poisonous set of crooked values. It imposes injustice and ruthlessness and demands ultimate obedience and religious dedication to its leader.
That they can keep their hopes alive at all — despite knowing the elections will be rigged again — is down to the enthusiastic and passionate opposition, which has been banging its fist on the table more strongly than ever.
The social democrats' candidate, Muharrem Ince, is on fire in his grand rallies; the leader of the Nationalists, Meral Aksener, is challenging Erdogan in her uncompromising speeches; the mainly Kurdish party HDP's leader, Selahattin Demirtas, is campaigning from his prison cell, where he has been kept as a political hostage for the last 20 months; and even the conservative Islamic party is speaking the language of solidarity against injustice.
Since they joined forces against Erdogan, all the parties have been fighting as if there were no tomorrow. Their message is that there is no future if this election is lost to the one-man regime.
So, please take a moment today to pay respect to the people of Turkey for their resistance to this forced insanity. Their endurance and their determination to uphold democracy should inspire all the nations of the West that only recently started experiencing the absurdity of right-wing populism and already look confused and exhausted. If you cannot picture what it is like to be a Turkish citizen today, imagine living 16 years under Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a situation in which they have all the state powers in their hands, and add thousands of devoted clones of theirs manufactured through the years to the picture. Then you can understand how much it takes to keep on hoping and to remain determined to stay humane.
http://www.dw.com/en/the-puppy-populism-and-the-dance-elections-in-turkey-between-sanity-and-insanity/a-44275489
