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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Thank you @nytimes.com. However: democrats & democratic countries should support the anti-autocracy and pro-democracy movement in Turkey, and its jailed presidential candidate @ekremimamoglu.com, not because he and Turkey will follow any particular foreign policy ++ nytimes.com/2025/04/27/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Turkey’s People Are Resisting Autocracy. They Deserve More Than Silence. (Gift Article)

The world’s democracies can speak up to make Erdogan’s life less comfortable.

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Review of Democracy @revdem2020.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

✍️ In the second part of his article, @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social explores the Turkish democracy movement’s evolving strategies, emerging alliances, and political stakes for #Turkey’s future. 🇹🇷 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/ms8ftkjw

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

We urgently need domestic & global strategies for democracy to prevail in the deepening global democracy-autocracy cleavage. Turkey's battle offers many insights. Especially how the opposition has been leaning and evolving. Here is the first part of my article 👇 revdem.ceu.edu/2025/04/23/a...

revdem.ceu.edu

All Together or None of Us – Part I: The Arrest that Sparked Turkey’s Democratic Uprising | Review of Democracy

When Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was arrested, Turkey’s democratic future reached a breaking point. In this two-part series, Murat Somer examines how that moment united the long-divided social a...

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Review of Democracy @revdem2020.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

✍️ In the first part of his article, @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social analyzes how the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor triggered mass resistance and united the long-divided social and political opposition in #Turkey. 🇹🇷 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/mu6syjes #TurkeyProtests

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oiip @infooiip.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Join our panel on 29 April at 17:00: Turkey at the Crossroads – Is this the End or the Beginning of Democracy? With @sebnemgumuscu.bsky.social @selvinkorkmaz.bsky.social @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social @cengizgunay.bsky.social @kreiskyforum.bsky.social Register 👉 www.oiip.ac.at/events/shapi...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

CEU Democracy Institute @CEUDemInst ✍️📄 In his paper in the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, our @OSUNForum Fellow @murat_somer_eng discusses democratic backsliding in Turkey. Details: 👉 cutt.ly/srsoIbAp

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Jennifer Hattam @jenhattam.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

As masses take to the streets in Istanbul, the largely peaceful protests are absent, or shown as a threat, on mainstream media – 85% of which have ties to the govt. "It's disinformation, it's as simple as that," @muratsomer.bsky.social tells @ruthmichaelson.com. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.com

‘It’s disinformation’: Turkish state TV avoids any coverage of mass street protests

News of protests has been preserve of a few newspapers and channels outside well funded pro-government networks

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Excellent article/warning by ‪@lgamboa.bsky.social‬. Backsliding in US is already at an advanced stage (started in first Trump administration & even earlier, Biden era being lost opp. to revert). This should unite alarmists and cautioners over strategies informed by other cases in the world.

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Jennifer McCoy @jennifermccoy.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

What can the U.S. learn from other countries living through threats to democracy? Lessons from our global research and 15 case studies distilled in my new commentary with @beattyriedl.bsky.social Ken Roberts, and @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social include: (1/3) goodauthority.org/news/us-demo...

goodauthority.org

U.S. democracy is under attack. Here are some lessons for democracy’s defenders.

A global study of democratic backsliding and resilience offers ways to resist authoritarian attacks.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

What has been happening in Turkey in recent weeks is the latest stage of a two-decades long battle between democracy & autocracy, where Erdoğan governments have been gradually replacing Turkey's preexisting defective yet well-established democracy with autocracy. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

journals.sagepub.com

A Long Battle: Turkey’s Backsliding and Resistance Through Trench Warfare - Murat Somer, 2024

Since 2002, governments led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party have taken Turkey’s political regime from electoral democracy to electoral autocracy. This has...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Turkish citizens are voting for democracy with their feet and willpower that defies unlawful government bans. Based on opinion polls, Erdoğan government is already a minority government. The release of elected officials beginning with İmamoğlu and early elections are the opposition's main demands+

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The EU should open up all channels of cooperation and integration including SAFE, BUT make it conditional on unconditional democratization.. Very good pitch by my former student and now great colleague Semuhi Sinanoğlu www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/27/03/2...

globalpolicyjournal.com

Standing up for Istanbul’s mayor will strengthen European security

Semuhi Sinanoglu argues that by remaining silent on Imamoglu’s arrest, Europe jeopardizes its own future security, trading a pro-democracy partner for a full-blown autocratic regime. Europe still has ...

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Turkey’s main opposition party, CHP, has called for street protests & targeted boycotts against companies linked to President Erdogan. It’s taking these steps because it realises that Erdogan has now erased peaceful opponents’ ability to hold him accountable through Turkey’s courts or ballot box.

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Carnegie Democracy @carnegiedcg.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

🔔Out now!🔔 "Democratic Backsliding: How It Happens and How It Can Be Countered," ed. by @jennifermccoy.bsky.social @beattyriedl.bsky.social @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social & Kenneth Roberts, with articles from @carnegieendowment.org's Thomas Carothers and @milanv.bsky.social. Read the issue here!👇

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Yusuf Sarfati @yusufsarfati.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Imamoglu's biggest crime is to be a successful opposition mayor under a regime of authoritarian mediocrity.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Turkey's pro-democracy opposition is now trying a new bottom-up strategy of "constructive polarization". Contentious politics is one strategy it had shied away from in the last 23 years. My article evaluating all this just came out👇open-access for now journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

journals.sagepub.com

A Long Battle: Turkey’s Backsliding and Resistance Through Trench Warfare

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Andy Scollick @andyscollick.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

@muratsomer-eng.bsky.social: "Turkish student reading Jean Jacque Rousseau's Social Contract in defiance of anti-terror armoured vehicles. Ankara, Middle East Technical University ODTÜ campus. What Erdoğan government is trying to do is a clear civilan coup attempt against democracy for two reasons:

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

It is open-access for thirty days!

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

On Erdoğan's last move to stifle opposition by persecuting @imamoglu_int, with my comments.. For the record, the analogy with Erdoğan's own conviction in 1999 is a limited one. Then, Turkey was a state of law with an independent judiciary; the problem ++ edition.cnn.com/2025/03/19/e...

edition.cnn.com

Turkey moves closer to endless Erdogan rule as biggest rival detained | CNN

Turkish police have detained the strongest rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a move that experts say is aimed at removing all possible contenders ahead of the next presidential election and fur...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

The gravest mistake for the publics of democracies is to think that what is happening in Turkey is about Turkey & its region alone. The deepening global fault line between democracy & autocracy and the battle between democratic & oligarchic/far-right rule is played out in TR but will not stop here.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

A civilian coup is in full progress in Turkey. Unless EU acts swiftly and decisively, they will not only be complicit but will also endanger Europe's own long-term security. An autocratic Turkey with transactional relations with EU cannot reliably contribute to European security +

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

After 40 years, and after 4 months President Erdoğan's far-right coalition partner encouraged him to do so.. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)'s jailed leader Öcalan suggested to his group to disarm and disband. Is this a real peace process or a plot by...+ www.amazon.com/Return-Point...

amazon.com

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Excellent article by @larrydiamond.bsky.social. I am sure he would have a lot to say about int. cooperation for democracy too. Democracy in the world's major superpower is in a free fall; we need strong democratic "leaders" working together everywhere to stop it www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-ame...

theunpopulist.net

Trump's America Is in a Free Fall—Not a Slippery Slope—to Tyranny

He is instilling fear not just among lawmakers but every sector of society that dares to criticize him or hold him accountable

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Interesting indeed. Key challenge for democrats all over the world is to shift politics from issues autocrats want to talk about, e.g. culture wars, to issues they carefully hide, such as economic equality and sovereignty. Not easy cause they must convince they can deliver better for median citizens

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Meanwhile, encouraged by Trump, the Erdoğan autocracy in Turkey has started a full-fledged campaign against any critics in an attempt to move to Putin-style full autocracy. Last few days' targets were Kurdish elected officials, the main opposition party CHP and .. ++

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Nevertheless, much remains to be seen as institutions have not responded fully to everything yet. Vertical and horizontal division of powers is quite strong in the US.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

I think this is partly because backsliding started in the US earlier and it already is at an advanced stage.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

I would say, no. Coups ride on shock value/speed, backsliding on habituation/uncertainty. In this paper we defined it as min. five years of max. 0.1 decline of lib. democracy 👇=> a) US may already be at an advanced stage (I think so) b) it is not backsliding preprints.apsanet.org/engage/apsa/...

preprints.apsanet.org

Old Autocracy or Something New?: Conceptualizing and Measuring Democratic Erosion and Overcoming It

Existing measurements of democratic erosion (DE) do not necessarily start with adequate conceptual-theoretical scrutiny and insufficiently incorporate DE’s distinguishing features into operationalizin...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

It looks like Trump team has carefully studied the processes of democratic backsliding elsewhere in the world and is aiming to fast forward it. Can backsliding be more successful this way? I don't know, the greatest advantage of backsliding politics is incrementalism @jennifermccoy.bsky.social

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

She should have asked: "should we also abide if he calls it 'Gulf of Martians'" or "the world is from now on flat" ‪@yusufsarfati.bsky.social‬. By the way this exemplifies already an advanced stage of democratic backsliding. Turkey, for one, reached it a decade later (causing Gezi protests in 2013)

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

events.ozyegin.edu.tr/en#/0/detail...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Why am I getting E. Musk's & A. Jones' posts 'n X every time even though I am not following them? We cannot reimagine democracy without rethinking the public-private boundaries in social media. It is as important for democracy's health as an MD is for human health, but not nearly as regulated

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Friends in the US who want to protect democracy.. Lesson from Turkey 's long backsliding: when the government breaks a law, don't allow the media to talk about it as "something that is happening". Compel it to call it what it is. The news is lawlessness even when the gov. commits it and denies it.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

And don't fall into the trap of "Us vs Them" business. Uphold the law and common constitutional principles. When democracy and rule of law fall, everybody but small minorities lose together.

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

CEU Democracy Institute @CEUDemInst Mark your calendar for the next seminar of our Inequalities and Democracy Workgroup! 🗓️ Feb 10, 1:30pm CET 📍 Budapest, Nador u. 13🗣️ @murat_somer_eng🗣️ @EvaFodor_CEU Details: 👉 cutt.ly/Ke74BN2J Registration: 👉 cutt.ly/3e74Nooo

cutt.ly

Economic Inequalities and Depolarizing (and Remaking) Democracies

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

while the majorities of two populations who became ready to accept autocratic solutions in the name of change look by.. hard to stomach all this but only way out is for democrats to develop alternative viable solutions to to festering problems (crime in ES and "immigration" in the US)

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Opposition hesitation & confusion at early stages is a main driver of democratic backsliding. Now is the time to act in unity against lawlessness! Trump has an electoral mandate to implement a political program, not to break the law & fundamental norms of democracy with legitimate opposition+

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Disruptive autocrats know this and exploit it.

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Florian Bieber @fbieber.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Nearly 400 academics and students from all over the world have signed the petition in support of the students in Serbia. You can also join the list: forms.gle/aWDQ2RjzeVL8...

forms.gle

Solidarity with Students in Serbia1

Herewith, we express our solidarity with the students and universities of Serbia. On 1 November 2024, the canopy at the recently renovated Novi Sad train station collapsed, killing 15 people. For ...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Two months ago I started writing an op-ed series that analyzed the apparent Kurdish peace process that the Turkish government initiated following the regime change in Syria, based on my book Return to Point Zero. Today I decided to stop the op-eds because +++ t24.com.tr/yazarlar/mur...

t24.com.tr

Milada Dönüş (III): Rejim meselesi ve yazılara ara

CHP Kürt açılımıyla ilgili pozisyonunu en net ve açık şekilde kamuoyuna duyurmalıdır. 'Muhalefete yönelik baskılar durur ve aynı zamanda somut adımlarla listelenen demokratikleşme adımları atılır güve...

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Murat Somer @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Typical of pernicious polarization processes in democracies.. important not to generalize one motivation on both sides. Some Trump supporters have majoritarian views while others may think they save the country from an imminent threat from Democrats, others thinking it's for necessary reforms..

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