Mert Hüseyin Akgün

Researcher
Mert H. Akgün got his Bachelor's degree from Ankara University Faculty of Law. Akgün completed his Master’s degree at Hacettepe University, Department of Public Law, with her thesis titled “The Parliament’s Tools for Supervising the Executive Body after the 2017 Constitutional Amendments”. Forms of government, democratization, new constitution studies, legislative activities, judicial reform, and human rights are among Akgün's research areas of interest.
  • Before the first-round election on May 14, many people supposed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s long-standing winning streak would be broken. This belief was fueled by high inflation and the devastating earthquakes that had occurred just three months before the elections. Nonetheless, the outcomes of the first-round election contradicted the predictions of almost all polls, leading to historic results that surprised many.
  • Although the checks and balances mechanisms in modern liberal democracies have increasingly diversified, the most effective means for accountability and controlling leaders is still the ballot box. Of course, free, fair and competitive elections are not the only condition for a regime’s pluralistic and libertarian rule, but it is a prerequisite.
  • Taking advantage of an unstable political system and toxic civilian-military relations, FETÖ infiltrated the Turkish military and exploited what it could