Turkey: After Hagia Sophia ruling, many fear what's next from Erdogan

The conversion of Istanbul's symbolic, shape-shifting Hagia Sophia edifice back into a mosque is being described as a victory for the conservative religious agenda of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Hagia Sophia was once a cathedral, and then it was a mosque. And then, in 1934, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk— the founder of modern Turkey, who aspired to build a secular state — declared it a museum.After a Turkish court annulled Atatürk's decision one week ago, Erdoğan swiftly declared the Hagia Sophia to be — once again — a mosque.

"Turkey wanted to be a member of the democratic world, but that story has ended," said Garo Paylan, 48, a Christian Armenian who is one of the founders of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party.Erdoğan "can't give bread to the people, and he's giving more radicalism to the Muslim majority," Paylan said over the phone.While the Hagia Sophia decision was a major symbolic win for the country's Islamists, Paylan argued that it shut the door to the future for minorities in the country and took away a symbol of respect for the country's diversity. He has stopped telling his fellow Armenians to stay in the country.

"My guess is it's only going to get worse," Bayrasli said. "He's desperate to hold onto power."Feminist activists blame the government's conservatism for what they say is a steady rise in gender-based violence.The deputy chairman of the Justice and Development Party suggested this month that Turkey might exit the Istanbul Convention, a treaty to protect women from violence.In a telephone interview, Neslihan Duran, 24, a student at Gaza University in Ankara, said that "with such policies, women are designated as an inferior gender."

For Yusuf Erim, 40, a Muslim Turk, Erdoğan's conservatism is a reminder to the country's Muslims that they are part of a larger Islamic community.Erim, an editor-at-large for the Turkish state broadcaster, TRT, said turning the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque was another way to do that. He said he believed Muslims around the world would flock to pray at the historic building."Let's call it an Islamic bucket list," he said over the phone.

Democracy at it's finest. Most people have no idea about ruling the state, so usually they simply vote either for those who promise them more social handouts, or for those who claim they're more religious.

There's a very clear pattern throughout history that an illiberal democracy always turns into majoritarian tyranny. Democracy can't be sustained without liberal principles. The ancient Greeks understood that and so did Ataturk. Erdogan is obviously smart enough to know this but he has no regard for democracy and, as @Napp said, is cynically abusing and eroding it with every step he takes.

The same thing is happening right now to India (the world's largest democracy) under Modi.

It might be, that it can't be sustained at all.

The whole idea to let people without any qualifications, decide on one of the most complex controllable mechanisms, seems horrendous.

The West has had a very good run with functioning liberal democracies throughout the 20th century. It has arguably been the most effective political system ever wrt balancing freedoms, rights and societal wellbeing with creative and economically productive enterprise. What's the alternative?

Turkey has already charged some people who have criticised the president or his cabinet online, but the bill could further those efforts by silencing dissidents voices on the international platforms Human Rights Watch has said.

"If passed, the new law will enable the government to control social media, to get content removed at will, and to arbitrarily target individual users," said Tom Porteous, deputy programme director at Human Rights Watch, ahead of the bill's ratification.

"It is essential for everyone who values and champions free speech to recognise how damaging these new restrictions will be in a country where an autocracy is being constructed by silencing media and all critical voices. Social media companies should loudly and unequivocally call on Turkey to drop this law, and the EU should resolutely back this call."

Since a coup attempt in 2016, the majority of Turkish media is now more aligned with Ankara's policies, with many Turks turning to smaller online outlets for more critical coverage of the government.