As of: March 15, 2024, 5:30 p.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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Press
Split
When elections take place in Russia and Turkey, the winner is almost always determined in advance.
We will show you why.
Moscow/Ankara – The presidential elections in Russia, which begin on Friday, will last three days.
From March 15th to 17th, a total of more than 112 million people were called to vote.
Among them are 4.5 voters in the territories in Ukraine that were annexed in violation of international law and two million Russians abroad.
Turkey held parliamentary and presidential elections last year, which ended in a victory for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP.
Local elections will also take place in Turkey on March 31st.
Putin and Erdogan have been in power for over 20 years
Both Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin have ruled their countries for over 20 years.
One of the main reasons for this is the lack of independent media.
“After February 24, 2022, the start of Russia’s large-scale war of aggression, most Russian independent journalists and media outlets went into exile out of concern for their safety.
Many continue from there: These are, for example, well-known and comparatively wide-reaching media such as the independent TV station Dozhd, the online medium Meduza (which has been reporting from exile in Riga since 2014) or Novaya Gazeta Evropa (which is legally independent of the renowned Novaya Gazeta in Russia),” writes the Federal Agency for Civic Education in one of its reports on the Russian media landscape.
Russia and Türkiye: Opposition figures and journalists flee into exile
Similarly in Turkey: thousands of journalists were fired after the corruption scandal in December 2013 and the attempted coup in 2016.
Media was confiscated and sold to businessmen loyal to the government.
Hundreds of journalists fled into exile.
Journalists like Can Dündar and Cevheri Güven are now reporting on the government's machinations from exile in Germany.
Exiled journalists' videos and news sites are blocked in Turkey.
Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have ruled their countries for over 20 years.
© IMAGO/Sergei Karpukhin
Persecution of critics and opponents
Critics are persecuted in both countries.
Many Russian opposition figures now live abroad, like the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
When the opposition activist and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was released in 2013 after ten years in prison, he fled to London, from where he finances opposition platforms.
Supporters of Navalny and Khodorkovsky have also left the country in recent years.
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Many opposition figures are in prison in Turkey.
“Human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians and others continued to face unfounded investigations, prosecutions and guilty verdicts,” writes Amnesty International in a Turkey report.
Prominent examples are the cultural patron Osman Kavala and the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP, Selahattin Demirtas.
A total of three charges were also brought against the co-chairman of the Turkish human rights association IHD, Öztürk Türkdoğan, in 2022: for “membership in a terrorist organization,” “insulting officials,” and “denigrating the Turkish nation.”
War as a demonstration of power by Putin and Erdogan
Both countries are at war.
While Russia has been waging war in Ukraine for over two years, Turkey is active in Iraq and especially in northeastern Syria, where it occupies Afrin and its surroundings.
Both countries describe their wars as anti-terrorism.
They symbolize strength to their followers, which is apparently well received.
A lack of rule of law also means that the opposition remains weak.
Arbitrary judgments in favor of those in power are commonplace in both Russia and Turkey.
On the rule of law index of the non-governmental organization “World Justice Project”, Russia is ranked 113th and Turkey is ranked 117th out of 143 countries.
It is therefore certain that Putin will become president again.
Erdogan could also win back the metropolis of Istanbul from the opposition CHP party on March 31st.
(erpe/dpa/AFP)