As Turkey prepares for its upcoming elections on May 14, many are speculating about the strategies that the ruling party, AKP, will employ to secure their power. For the last three years, there has been a growing concern that the AKP will rely on an anti-gender strategy, which involves speaking out against LGBTI+ and women’s movements to attract conservative voters. Unfortunately, recent history in other European countries, such as Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia, has shown that such strategies can be effective in rallying support among conservative voters. By Gürkan Özturan in The Radical Democrat on April 16, 2023.
News coverage in recent years show that the AKP is indeed using anti-gender rhetoric to appeal to conservative voters. This rhetoric often takes the form of portraying LGBTI+ and women’s movements as threats to traditional family values, and as promoting “foreign” ideologies that are incompatible with Turkish culture. Some members of the AKP have also suggested that these movements are part of a broader plot by Western powers to undermine Turkey’s sovereignty.
Examples in Poland and Hungary
This rhetoric is not unique to Turkey. In recent years, we have seen similar trends in other European countries. In Poland, for example, the ruling party, PiS, has used anti-LGBTI+ and anti-women’s rhetoric to appeal to conservative voters. The party has introduced laws that criminalize the promotion of LGBTI+ issues in schools, and has even suggested that LGBTI+ people pose a threat to the country’s national security. Similarly, in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has used anti-gender rhetoric to appeal to conservative voters, portraying LGBTI+ and women’s movements as foreign ideologies that threaten traditional Hungarian values.
While it is concerning that the AKP is resorting to such tactics, we should not underestimate the intelligence of Turkish voters. The AKP’s anti-gender rhetoric is a distraction from the very real problems that the country is facing. Turkey has been struggling with an economic crisis for several years, and the devastating earthquakes of February 6, 2023, have only made things worse. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives, and many more have been left homeless and destitute.
Anti-Gender rhetoric is livesaver for failing authoritarians
AKP is not alone in leading the anti-gender discourse in Turkey. It is true that homophobic and misogynist tendencies are quite strong in the country and multiple fundamentalist parties (such as Yeniden Refah Party and Hezbollah’s political representative Hüda-Par) are openly basing their discourse on supposedly “family values” which in reality is a cover for an attempt at preventing LGBTI+ and/or women from having any social presence. As a result, AKP recently -ahead of the elections- formed an alliance with these parties which propagate that they would ban the LGBTI+ and ensure that women will be limited in their “traditional role” in society, as they prioritise women’s role as a wife and mother.
In times of crisis, it is easy to fall for simplistic solutions that blame certain groups for the country’s problems. But we must remember that the issues facing Turkey are complex and cannot be solved through scapegoating. LGBTI+ and women’s movements are not the cause of Turkey’s economic woes or the earthquakes that have devastated the country. Rather, they are fighting for equality and justice for all people, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.
As we approach the elections, we must keep this in mind. We must focus on the issues that truly matter: rebuilding after the earthquakes, addressing the economic crisis, and creating a more just and equitable society for all. We must address the conscience and the intelligence of Turkish voters to see through the AKP’s attempts to distract from these issues and to make an informed decision based on the real challenges facing the country.
In conclusion, while the AKP’s anti-gender strategy is a cause for concern, we still have to trust in the intelligence of Turkish voters to see through this hate-oriented rhetoric and to focus on the real issues facing the country. By doing so, we can finally take one more step closer to a society of liberties and justice.
By Gürkan Özturan in The Radical Democrat on April 16, 2023.