The latest White House visit of AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan marked a critical turning point in Turkey’s drift into a Middle Eastern-style autocracy over the past decade.
The behind-the-scenes details of this appointment were revealed by opposition leader Özgür Özel, and everything he said turned out to be accurate. The Oval Office meeting was arranged through a secret meeting between Trump’s son and Erdoğan. As leverage, Erdoğan put a massive Boeing deal on the table. U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Tom Barrack confirmed during the visit that more than 200 aircraft had been ordered. Otherwise, Erdoğan would have merely exchanged greetings with Trump at the UN meetings in New York before returning to Ankara.
This process resembled not diplomacy but rather “transactional politics” worthy of textbooks—almost a form of commercial bribery, similar to how wealthy princes of the Middle East secure meetings with U.S. presidents: not through shared values, but through massive contracts.
By contrast, during the early 2000s, as Turkey embarked on EU accession reforms—achieving significant progress in economics, human rights, and democracy—it shone not only in its region but worldwide. At that time, U.S. presidents from Bush to Obama visited Turkey without the need for billion-dollar deals. Turkey’s rise as a democracy and responsible ally amid authoritarian neighbors was enough to command global respect—from America to Africa to Asia to Russia.
Today, the trajectory toward authoritarianism is evident—not merely in billion-dollar deals for a White House photo-op.
“He gave him what he needed most: Legitimacy”
Love them or hate them, Trump and his team deserve credit for one trait: they speak without the usual diplomatic masks.
Tom Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Trump’s close friend, made this clear at the Concordia Summit: “Turkey is a democracy, but a little authoritarian. Trump made a clever move and gave Erdoğan what he needed most: legitimacy.”
The message was plain: Erdoğan’s regime now seeks legitimacy not from law, democracy, or its own people, but from powerful patrons abroad.
Equally troubling was the silence surrounding Erdoğan’s repressive domestic policies during his Washington visit. Neither American nor Turkish journalists raised questions about jailed opposition figures, muzzled media, or the collapse of judicial independence. Even Fox TV’s Bret Baier, interviewing Erdoğan, avoided mentioning imprisoned Istanbul Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu. Except for trucks driving through New York and Washington displaying İmamoğlu posters, nothing in Erdoğan’s U.S. visit reminded anyone that Turkey was no longer a democracy.
This unquestioning atmosphere made Erdoğan’s White House reception resemble the welcome given to Gulf sheikhs—except those rulers possess oil wealth, while Turkey ranks among the world’s top 10 countries in the misery index.
“He knows fraudulent elections better than anyone”
Another resemblance to Middle Eastern rulers appeared in the gulf between rhetoric and action. Erdoğan devoted 26 of his 36 minutes at the UN podium to Gaza, but in the Oval Office—where words might have carried real weight—he said nothing on the issue. Journalists also remained silent. Stirring speeches for domestic and international audiences gave way to quiet pragmatism before Washington’s power centers.
When Trump asked Turkey to stop buying oil and gas from Russia, Erdoğan—hailed by loyalists as a “global leader”—offered no protest. Worse, when Trump pointed at him and said, “He knows fraudulent elections better than anyone,” Erdoğan swallowed the insult in silence. Trump’s reminder that Pastor Brunson had been freed by Erdoğan’s personal order underscored how Turkey had become a lawless Middle Eastern principality. Having personally dismantled the rule of law, Erdoğan could hardly contradict him.
Likewise, Erdoğan offered no reply when U.S. Secretary of State Rubio quipped on Fox News: “You’re begging for five minutes and a handshake at the White House.” Instead, Turkey’s Communications Directorate tried to spin the comment, claiming Erdoğan had actually praised Trump and that mistranslation distorted it—an excuse Fox quickly rejected.
For over a decade, Erdoğan has shredded every legal norm, ignored the Constitution and European Court of Human Rights rulings, silenced opposition, and turned the judiciary into a government tool—building a regime rivaling the Arab world’s most repressive states. Having lost domestic legitimacy, the regime seeks it abroad in staged photo-ops paid for by billion-dollar deals, while railing against those same powers on home turf.
A troubling shift in NATO’s legacy
The White House visit highlighted another uncomfortable reality: NATO membership and U.S. ties, once encouraging Turkey’s transition to multi-party democracy, now seem to legitimize its authoritarian drift. While Trump’s America is hardly a model of democratic consistency, this does not mean democracy, human rights, or press freedom will never again matter in U.S.–Turkey relations. But for now, the situation is dire.
The vital question—one that matters not only for the opposition but for society as a whole—is this: Will Turkey continue as a democracy grounded in its people’s consent, or will it cement its place among authoritarian regimes with sham elections and no rule of law?
And perhaps most crucially: Has America already accepted this? If so, what responsibility lies with Turkish society itself, which has for a decade tolerated illegality and corruption?
If Washington has indeed endorsed Erdoğan’s Middle Eastern-style regime, then political and civic opposition in Turkey must focus less on the details and more on the essential question: what kind of future awaits the nation, and under such circumstances, how can it find its way back to law and democracy?
