When I returned from Austria to Turkey, I was supposed to find a more democratic homeland, considering the positive reactions of the US and the EU officials following the constitutional referendum.
However, it seems that it's still business as usual under the AKP government here.
First of all, I was not permitted to vote in the airport on the eve of the referendum, because they say that I must be a resident of another country to do it. As long as I reside in Turkey, even if I won't be around on an election day, I can't vote while leaving the country. And there is no way to vote abroad.
Maybe the government don't let these people vote, because they know that the Turks who are open to the world, shuttling between Turkey and other countries, know a bit better about democracy than the AKP mob. So they also know that these people would never vote for these constitutional amendments, which are everything but democratizing...
Then I came back here and confirmed that the referendum didn't change anything, after reading a Turkish news story:
"Like President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had also been booed by the Turkish crowd during a match in the FIBA World Basketball Championship. Now the police have scanned the CCTV footage and spotted the individual fans who protested Erdogan. The next step will be identifying these individuals through their seat numbers. So the police have started to check the information on the commercial website that the tickets were solved, as well as the credit card records of the ticket-holders."
And you still say that this prime minister is building a better democracy? Didn't you notice yet what's coming up with the already-approved destruction of separation of powers in Turkey?
