According to democracy, elections are the greatest power of citizens and the greatest opportunity for the general public to participate in the running of the country. Globally, Turkey may be one of the few countries where citizens enjoy the highest level of participation in political life.
I don't know if there is any other country in the world where voter turnout is as high as 90%, even in advanced democracies turnout is less than 50%, and in some Middle Eastern countries where elections are a formality, turnout levels are much lower.
This low turnout is due to the belief that the election results will change nothing, and that politics will not affect people's lives much because of the already existing dictatorship, which makes people somewhat uninterested in administration or governance. This dimension is not negative for advanced democracies because fewer or more will continue to be the arbiter among the people, and this is democracy.
In the second case, where voter turnout is as low as in the Middle East, we know that it is the despair and helplessness that overwhelms people, which makes them feel that elections will not change anything, that prevents them from participating in the first place. Regardless of who they vote for, the lack of transparency in the vote count makes participation in the elections meaningless play, and since the current ruling regime has prepared the result it wants in advance, it only waits election day to announce it, so the turnout in these countries is sometimes less than 10%.
Elections have been free and fair with at least constant turnout since 1950, and election results cannot be manipulated. Even in times of coups, putschists were forced to accept the results of the ballot box as legitimate statements even if they sometimes tried to obstruct the politics that resulted from these legitimate statements in other ways.
Through elections, rulers can change and policies change, and classes of society can find different channels and new opportunities are formed. This fact makes even the simplest citizens of Turkey active individuals, each of whom feels valued and that his voice may change the fate of the entire nation. Even policies that are believed to be fixed and unchanging in metaphysical reality can be flexible over time in the negotiating atmosphere opened up by election campaigns.
Of course, this opportunity that elections provide to citizens has created an appeal for those who did not find a chance to come to power in Turkey through coups. Elections require dialogue with the people and mutual understanding, and the idea of practicing politics against the will of the people must be abandoned, even if it is for their own sake, which does not correspond to an understanding based on the "Jacobin ideology", whose proponents believe that they have achieved truth and rightness, and that the public interest is in what they believe and will do on behalf of everyone.
Jacobite is not the only problem; when you realize that you will not be able to get the vote you demand from the people for the world you designed in your mind, the concessions you must make may drag you into the predicament of populism. When the auction of "promises" begins, it becomes more difficult to balance politics.
Looking at the promises made by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Miral Aksener, they seem to know no boundaries. Beyond everything, they are not in power so they do not hesitate to make promises to give everyone what they desire now; there is nothing to lose by giving empty promises without limits. After all, they will not be put in a position where they can be asked to be held accountable if they cannot deliver on these empty promises. Even if people believe these reckless words and vote for them, they have no obligation to keep these promises. Who will come out after the elections to demand accountability?
This populist politician will not be the first to forget what the people promised the day after the elections. The main goal of populists is only to seize power for a day, even if it is through deception and false promises, and the desired goal is only to topple Erdogan and destroy what he has built in the last twenty years. It's not even about building something new or adding something new on top of what's already been accomplished. Building a landmark like the Sulaymaniyah Mosque requires someone like the architect Sinan, a background of knowledge, skill and competence that took decades to form, and to destroy it it is enough to employ two workers and two axes.
Populism is indeed among the biggest drawbacks and obstacles to democratic politics. It is very difficult to compete with populist political language as it sells people idealistic dreams that cannot be real, or rather free dreams, that projectes these ideological ideas and puts them on today's reality, claiming to represent these abstract utopian/idealistic ideas in an extraordinary way. This is a claim that no one can dispute, because it is indeed just an idea, but it possesses a demonic seduction power capable of entraping crowds living in a world of illusions. Worse, it is the irresponsible moral pressure exerted by populist politics and promises to power.
However, when we put aside the more ridiculous aspects of Kılıçdaroğlu's populism during this period, we see that even his promises are no match for the achievements of the 21-year AKP government. Many of the things he promised are essentially government achievements that have already been achieved. On the one hand, we have a populism based on absurd, unlimited, uncalculated, irresponsible and immoral promises. On the other hand, we have a vision for a future that is validated and validated by the achievements of the current Government.
In contrast, the services that Erdogan opens every day, and the projects he has announced completed, are powerful and large enough to run a normal government for 5 or 10 years by old standards. Every project and every opening is actually a building for the world of the future, and these projects that have accumulated over 21 years speak for themselves.
The greatest difficulty lies in confronting ignorance that tries to minimize or cover up these achievements, even though they appear as a miracle. They try this through empty talk, misleading people, the illusion of using social media and light humor.