The area worst hit by the earthquake is described as politically complicated. Southeast Turkey is home to a majority of the country’s Kurds, and parts of northern Syria are controlled by both Turkish forces and Syrian rebels.
On Tuesday, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan announced that the country is declaring a state of emergency in ten provinces for three months. Michael Sahlin, former Swedish ambassador to Turkey, says that there is a risk that the state of emergency will be abused.
– The risk is that this is used as an internationally understandable way to tighten politics in order to focus all efforts on the disaster. And then time passes and then there may be political consequences, in terms of the relationship between the government and the opposition before a possible election.
The choice in the danger zone
Sahlin believes that the election planned for May is in the danger zone – at least from a democratic perspective. He reminds that Turkey carried out a referendum in 2019 under “state of emergency”, something that has been criticized in retrospect.
– Will there be something similar now? That you have a state of emergency right up until the election and even beyond the election. Then it is clear that the authenticity of the election will be questioned.
A state of emergency allows the president to bypass parliament when it comes to introducing new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms when they deem it necessary.
Hear more about the earthquake’s impact on politics in the video above.