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KONSTANTINOS CHOLEVAS

Erdogan imprisons his main political opponent and removes him from the post of Mayor of Constantinople through judicial means. Ekrem Imamoglu is at the center of international attention and his popularity in Turkey is increasing. As Greeks and as democratic citizens, we are following the developments with particular interest, but we must avoid illusions in order to protect our national interests.

It is obvious that Western-style democracy does not work in Turkey, nor are Human Rights protected. We rightly express the wish that Imamoglu be released from prison and that political life in the neighbor normalizes. However, it is useful to remember that Turkey will take a long time to become – if it ever does – a European-style democracy. Neither of the two major parties, AKP of Erdogan's Islamists and CHP of the Kemalists, to which Imamoglu belongs, sincerely believes in a truly democratic Turkey.

And the Kemalists persecuted their Islamist opponents, Erbakan and Erdogan, in the past. The Kemalist party is, after all, more friendly to the Army and does not reject the involvement of the Armed Forces in politics.

For Hellenism, the rotation of parties and individuals in Ankara is of little importance. During the invasion of Cyprus in July-August 1974, the “leftist” Kemalists of Ecevit and the Islamic Democrats of Erbakan, Erdogan’s political mentor, were in co-government. The Imia crisis was caused by Tansu Çıler as Prime Minister, who was a supporter of a secular (religiously neutral) state. Some in Greece at the time said that we should support her in power so that the … Islamists would not come.

Imamoglu is not a moderate when it comes to Greece and Cyprus. He lived and studied in Occupied Cyprus and has as his role model the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. I recall that Denktash admitted to the Cypriot journalist Stavros Sideras that many of the missing persons of the invasion were massacred by armed Turkish Cypriots, whom he himself organized and directed.

In 2017, when İmamoğlu was mayor of the Beylikduzu Municipality, near Istanbul, he erected a huge monument to honor Denktash and the Turkish soldiers who took part in the invasion of Cyprus. Turkey calls it a “peacekeeping operation.” İmamoğlu says he admires the invasion’s Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, for taking this “bold step.” Let’s remember this so that we don’t land abruptly in the future.

A concern of some Greek analysts is that Turkey will now become dangerous, because it will export the internal crisis and threaten Greece and Cyprus. The reality is that Turkey is constantly and consistently provocative and assertive regardless of internal problems. Whoever governs in Ankara, Kemalists or Islamists, military or politicians, the claims against Hellenism are timeless. We often change foreign policy, the Turks do not change.

We therefore condemn authoritarianism and the oppression of the rights of individuals and minorities in Turkey, but at the same time we think realistically and organize our defense and diplomatic planning. We do not need to choose “good guys” or “bad guys” in Turkish politics. Recent history is instructive.

Article in PARAPOLITIKA, 29.3.2025