Post-Referendum: Turkey As We Know It Is Gone — It's History

Never mind the outcries of 'it's the beginning of the end for Erdoğan' because the result of the referendum is in dispute. He will claim victory and legitimacy with full force. Turkey, as we know it, has gone.  

Erdoğan is now Turkey's president with unchecked powers. Holding both the leadership of the party and the role of Commander-in-Chief, he is in nearly full control of all the institutions of the state, including the judiciary. 

He demolished the DNA of the 'Old Republic', because both he and the people he represents have suffered at the hands of those who have led and defended it. For Erdoğan’s core constituency, the AKP era has been a golden era. The mainly pious and middle class Turks enjoy freedoms that they were once denied. They have benefitted from upward economic and social mobility. 

By granting Erdoğan the executive presidency, his voters are looking forward to even greater achievements. 

They found in him the patriarch they had so longed for.

The Turkish Republic has had a very complex history. At the core, it has been a considerable achievement in the Islamic world. In the space of almost a century, a largely agrarian society that had been devastated by war was transformed into a prosperous power, influential in its region and beyond. 

But at the same time, Turkey’s history has also been nondemocratic, dark, oppressive, and often violent. 

Given these elements, Erdoğan is simply replacing one form of authoritarianism, inherent in Turkish political tradition, with another. 

The Turkish Republic has always been flawed, but it has maintained the aspiration that it could become a democracy. 

Erdoğan’s new Turkey closes off that prospect, probably for good.

It's a new Turkey, with a new regime, with many deep consequences.