Murat Somer
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muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
Murat Somer
@muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
1.2K followers 81 following 56 posts
Prof., Political Science, Ozyegin Univ. Istanbul & CEU Budapest: https://faculty.ozyegin.edu.tr/muratsomer/ . Polarization/depolarization, democratic erosion & oppositions, ethnic, religious & secular politics. Türkçe postlar için: @muratsomer.bsky.social
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muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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...
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.
nytimes.com
April 27, 2025 at 10:01 AM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
How do you confront an elected government determined to crush opposition and immune to both legal constraint and reasoned debate?" ++ revdem.ceu.edu/2025/04/24/t...
All Together or None of Us – Part II: Turkey’s New Democracy Movement and Future | 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...
revdem.ceu.edu
April 24, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
revdem2020.bsky.social
✍️ 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
April 24, 2025 at 4:14 PM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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...
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...
revdem.ceu.edu
April 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
revdem2020.bsky.social
✍️ 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
April 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
infooiip.bsky.social
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...
April 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
protectdemocracy.org
What we're reading: A global study of democratic backsliding & resilience offers ways to resist authoritarian attacks, from @jennifermccoy.bsky.social, @beattyriedl.bsky.social, Kenneth Roberts, and @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social in @goodauth.bsky.social
goodauthority.org/news/us-demo...
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.
goodauthority.org
April 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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
April 9, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
jenhattam.bsky.social
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...
‘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
www.theguardian.com
March 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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.
lgamboa.bsky.social Laura Gamboa @lgamboa.bsky.social · Mar 31
Foreign Affairs is stingy with links/citations, but this piece builds on work by: @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social on regime uncertainty; @raschwartz.bsky.social & @manuelmlndzs.bsky.social on autocratization in Guatemala; & V. Bunce & S. Wolchik on defeating authoritarianism in post communist nations
April 1, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Murat Somer
beattyriedl.bsky.social
New op-ed out @goodauth.bsky.social based on our global research w Ken Roberts, @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social @jennifermccoy.bsky.social
Timely lessons re pressure on institutions and nature of pro-democracy coalitions

goodauthority.org/news/us-demo...
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.
goodauthority.org
March 31, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
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...
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.
goodauthority.org
April 1, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by Murat Somer
opiniontoday.bsky.social
U.S. democracy is under attack. A global study of democratic backsliding and resilience offers ways to resist authoritarian attacks.
(@jennifermccoy.bsky.social @beattyriedl.bsky.social Kenneth Roberts @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social @goodauth.bsky.social)
goodauthority.org/news/us-demo...
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.
goodauthority.org
April 1, 2025 at 8:50 AM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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....
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...
journals.sagepub.com
March 31, 2025 at 11:22 AM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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+
March 30, 2025 at 1:51 PM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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...
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 ...
www.globalpolicyjournal.com
March 27, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
monicamarks.bsky.social
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.
March 24, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
carnegiedcg.bsky.social
🔔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!👇
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
March 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Murat Somer
yusufsarfati.bsky.social
Imamoglu's biggest crime is to be a successful opposition mayor under a regime of authoritarian mediocrity.
istanbultelaviv.bsky.social Louis Fishman لوي فيشمان לואי פישמן @istanbultelaviv.bsky.social · Mar 23
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of a city of 16 million people and the hope of the future will be forced to sit in prison awaiting a trial. Erdogan used to say that if you win Istanbul, you win the country. Imamoglu has led his CHP opposition to a force Erdogan's AKP ever new. Now, he is behind bars.
March 23, 2025 at 2:47 PM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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....
A Long Battle: Turkey’s Backsliding and Resistance Through Trench Warfare
journals.sagepub.com
March 22, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Murat Somer
andyscollick.bsky.social
@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:
March 22, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Murat Somer
dadakim.bsky.social
The issue includes case studies of democratic backsliding (& resistance), including:

🇮🇳 #India by @milanv.bsky.social
🇻🇪 #Venezuela by @lgamboa.bsky.social
🇹🇷 #Turkey by
@muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
& 🇲🇼 #Malawi by @tallmanfromzomba.bsky.social and yours truly.

journals.sagepub.com/toc/anna/712/1
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science - Volume 712, Number 1
Table of contents for The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 712, 1
journals.sagepub.com
March 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
It is open-access for thirty days!
 Jennifer McCoy @jennifermccoy.bsky.social · Mar 21
New volume out on Democratic Backsliding and Recovery, edited by @beattyriedl.bsky.social , @muratsomer-eng.bsky.social , Ken Roberts and me. 15 case studies including countries with current massive protests against autocrats - Hungary, Serbia and Turkey. www.aapss.org/annals/volum...
Democratic Backsliding: How It Happens and How It Can Be Countered – AAPSS
www.aapss.org
March 22, 2025 at 10:19 AM
muratsomer-eng.bsky.social
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...
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...
edition.cnn.com
March 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM