Analysts hopeful Turkey’s opposition will cooperate again, like in local elections - Ahval Forum

Political scientist and former opposition lawmaker Binnaz Toprak told Ahval that she hoped Turkey's opposition parties would once again build a coalition and beat Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the upcoming elections, scheduled for 2023 under regular circumstances, repeating the mutual support displayed during 2018’s local elections.

Toprak spoke of the changing façade of global authoritarianism, and how they maintain a semblance of separation of powers while in the background gross violations of the rule of law become commonplace as judges dare not go against the grain.

Haluk Özdalga, veteran centre-left politician who later served two terms as lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), also joined the Ahval Forum podcast for a review of 2020 and a discussion of what is to come in 2021. Özdalga said Turkish citizens had been getting poorer for seven consecutive years since 2013, breaking a world record in terms of losing GDP per capita.

There are less than five countries in the world that have a less independent court system, according to Özdalga.

Ahval Forum’s comments on the past year and domestic and international expectations from 2021 can be seen below: