A 'democratisation package' announced by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 30 September 2013 featured a series of proposed legislative amendments aimed at relaxing some of Turkey's decades-old restrictions on freedom of expression. After a summer of protests sparked by frustrations with Erdogan's conservative social agenda and growing authoritarianism, these measures will grant greater freedoms to certain sections of society. But for others, they will likely be used by the Turkish authorities in such a way as to justify the introduction of new restrictions.
Perhaps more striking than the measures that were included in the package were the issues that it failed to address, particularly the deepening fissures in Turkish society that manifested themselves in unprecedented protests that swept the country in summer 2013. The contrast between the package's attempts to placate the demands of the pious Sunni Muslims who form Erdogan's grassroots support and the absence of any measures to protect the disparate groups who had taken to the streets in defence of alternative lifestyles, values and identities appears likely to exacerbate social tensions. For example, Erdogan failed even to acknowledge the discrimination faced by the country's heterodox Alevi religious minority. Most critically, the proposed changes fell far short of meeting the minimum demands of the Kurdish nationalist movement, intensifying already growing concerns that the dialogue initiated by the Turkish government in December 2012 will give way to another period of confrontation and violence.