Europe once again at a crossroads - Turkey goes to the polls

Turkey goes to the polls on Sunday in what seems, in the broadest terms, another battle between deep-rooted conservatism and, again in the broadest of broad terms, secular(ish) liberalism. Just as in nearly every country that holds credible elections today, the old and the new collide.

It was always been thus but, almost uniquely today, those disagreements seem increasingly unbridgeable. The response of some of those who campaigned to keep the Eighth Amendment suggests they feel they have become victims of this negative, triumphalist dynamic. This cannot enhance our democracy.

Victory for one over the other sharpens the kind of polarisation that threatens long-cherished social stability.

Increasingly, there are no real winners. Discord and something that looks like nascent anarchy — think of Trump’s family-splitting, trade-wars America, Brexit’s toxic introversion, Italy’s coalition of the extremes, Austria’s hard-right swing and, on this small island, the mothballing of Stormont — are all consequences of this rejection of the spirit and the objectives of participatory democracy. Even in Germany, a society all-too-aware of the cost of unchecked radicalism, a leader not so long ago regarded as Europe’s best hope struggles to contain those who reject an open-door policy on immigration.

That one of Turkey’s main opposition figures and a man expected to have pivotal influence in shaping Turkey after Sunday, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party leader Selahattin Demirtas, is campaigning from jail shows how divided that huge, ambitious country is.

That he is in jail for “insulting the president” and terrorist charges his supporters insist are trumped up — if convicted he might face 142 years in jail — seems remarkable, even in this country preparing to repeal anachronistic blasphemy laws and no stranger to electing those imprisoned for views regarded as seditious.

Demirtas’ position, however, underlines Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s affinity with his mentor, Russia’s Valdimir Putin.

Recognising how those leaders have learned from each other Demirtas has cautioned that “a fair vote... was impossible under the state of emergency. Demonstrations are banned, talking is banned, criticising the government is banned, even defending peace is considered terror propaganda,” he warned. “Hundreds of opposition journalists are arrested, dozens of TV and radio channels are closed.”

He is not the only challenger to Erdogan’s Ottomanesque ambitions. Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of Turkey’s largest Islamist party cites high unemployment, a widening trade deficit, a chaotic foreign policy, a stalled EU application and a state of emergency since the failed 2016 coup — as reasons to oppose Erdogan. The Manchester-educated head of Felicity is campaigning with avowed secularists — a coalition of opponents unthinkable a decade ago.

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. On June 18, 1815, Brussels socialites went to watch the carnage — 50,000 killed — from a safe hilltop. Wellington’s victory, as every schoolboy should know, changed Europe’s trajectory. It is easy to think that we are a similar crossroads and we need to do what is necessary to ensure politics prevail.