Zeitgeist Turkey | Episode 8: How to protect what is left of our privacy in the pandemic era

Duvar English

Duvar English’s editor-in-chief Cansu Çamlıbel and pollster Can Selçuki are joined by Boğaziçi University's Mert Arslanalp to discuss possible long-term implications of the COVID-19 tracking apps introduced by the Turkish government and other governments around the world. They emphasize that a sophisticated tracking of citizens is particularly disconcerting in Turkey which has been showing strong signs of moving towards an authoritarian regime in the last decade.

Assistant professor Mert Arslanalp, who teaches comparative political systems, urban policies and democratization at Boğaziçi University, gives examples from his recent research on how the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been using protest bans across the country to curtail freedoms. Arslanalp says that the COVID apps and measures carry potential risks of being used by the government to extend emergency-like suspensions of liberties without formally declaring a state of emergency.

This podcast was prepared with support from Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s Turkey Representation.