The New York Times: Turkey is one of the US’s most retrograde allies in democracy
The New York Times ranked Turkey among the United States’ most sharply diminished allies in democracy, analyzing data from V-Dem, a Swedish-based nonprofit that monitors democracy levels in countries through a range of indicators.
“In the analysis, assessments of the deterioration of democracy in U.S. allies, including Turkey, were included”.
U.S. allies represent a significant share of the global democratic downturn over the past 10 years, the analysis said. Although they still appear more democratic on average than rest of the world, almost all have suffered a certain degree of democratic erosion since 2010.
During the report, it was emphasized that among the G-20 countries, Brazil, India and Turkey are among the most democratic countries in decline.
The report added: Since 2010, there has been an increase in the decline of press freedom, academia, civil society and the spread of misinformation in Turkey.
The report noted that Turkish authorities have arrested journalists for reporting on the pandemic and detained hundreds of citizens for discussing issues on social media.
“Turkey has received wide international criticism for its human rights record, especially since a failed coup in 2017, which imprisoned thousands of opposition members on terrorism charges”.
