TaiShang
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Then you must also know that Erdogans time is almost over,Turkiye had enough of him and his religous politcs.
New elections will bring ''new'' players and hopefully will turn the country secular again.
I do hope so. But, as @mike2000 is back argues, I am not sure he is weaker than he used to be before elections. The secular left did not gain much ground, as far as I can understand. They are significant minority but seem without much tangible power. And one can sense an over-radicalization/religiosity even looking from outside Turkey.
There is one point that I want to add. In Iran, after 1953 coup, Shah started to oppress leftists(Tudeh Party) and liberals(National front of Iran) but religious leaders were unofficially free to expand their influence because they cooperated in 1953 coup with Shah and also shah was seeing them as a good barrier against expansion of communists and communism in Iran. So, new young generation of Iranians after 1953, found nothing but religious authorities and their groups, to form groups and raise their voice against the kingdom from time to time. West was also OK with it, because it could create an islamic green belt in Southern borders of USSR. About Turkey, as you said, it was the Leftists and Marxists that were completely eradicated, so the void was needed to be filled, and it was filled by islamists. Again, the same story as Iran, almost happened for Turkey, as well.
I guess a similar story took place in Egypt. It is the trademark of Islamist political movements. They criticize the system, complain about being oppressed, but in fact the very oppressive system provides them the most fertile ground to thrive, penetrate into the military, judiciary, education and every other key places of power. The so-called secular governments/system and coups first and foremost clamp down on the secular groups and leftists. As you say, also happened in Iran or as far away as in Chili.
Egypt was lucky because Morsi, unlike Erdogan, went full throttle, and scared the hell out of the moderates in between (left and right). Also, Morsi did not wait until he, one way or another, subdued the Army. Hence, he lost power because the Army did not back him.
Erdogan went slowly. Step by step. People used to think the Army was the guardian of the regime. They, in the end, turned out to be Kemalist paper tigers. People suddenly found out that the most criticized coup of 1980-81 (?) was in fact a God-sent gift for the Islamists because the coup wiped off the remaining leftist groups from political map and the new left was forced to move to center.
This reactionary tactic is not new or limited to Turkey. But it happened in Turkey. Present day crises and problems cannot be thought in isolation from such deeper historical context.
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