Turkey’s creative community is raising concerns about a cultural crackdown as President Erdoğan secures another term. Ayla Jean Yackley reports.
Turkey’s long-time leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan handily won a runoff election on Sunday to extend his rule into a third decade after a divisive campaign electrified his conservative base but antagonised his detractors, who include many of the country’s artists.
Most voters shrugged off warnings from his challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu that the election was a last chance to “shut the gates of hell” on Erdoğan’s authoritarian style of rule that has undermined democratic norms. Provisional results from the Sunday ballot show the incumbent won 52% of the vote to Kılıçdaroğlu’s 48%.
Turkey’s creative community fears Erdoğan could now intensify a long-running crackdown that has intimidated artists, musicians, filmmakers and other cultural activists. Kurdish, female and gay artists feel especially vulnerable after Erdoğan exploited social fissures to galvanise religious and nationalist voters, claiming opposition parties were “LGBT” and labelling the country’s main Kurdish bloc, with 5 millions voters, “terrorists.”...Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.
Turkey’s long-time leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan handily won a runoff election on Sunday to extend his rule into a third decade after a divisive campaign electrified his conservative base but antagonised his detractors, who include many of the country’s artists.
Most voters shrugged off warnings from his challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu that the election was a last chance to “shut the gates of hell” on Erdoğan’s authoritarian style of rule that has undermined democratic norms. Provisional results from the Sunday ballot show the incumbent won 52% of the vote to Kılıçdaroğlu’s 48%.
Turkey’s creative community fears Erdoğan could now intensify a long-running crackdown that has intimidated artists, musicians, filmmakers and other cultural activists. Kurdish, female and gay artists feel especially vulnerable after Erdoğan exploited social fissures to galvanise religious and nationalist voters, claiming opposition parties were “LGBT” and labelling the country’s main Kurdish bloc, with 5 millions voters, “terrorists.”...Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.