TURKEY PERSPECTIVE

Istanbul, May 29, 2026. The rejection by US federal courts of electoral redistricting maps supported by the Trump administration in the southern United States has not gone unnoticed in Turkish analytical circles. In Istanbul, this judicial drama is read through a particular prism: that of a country that has itself gone through decades of power struggles between ambitious executive powers and contested judicial apparatuses.

The Turkish government's press, including the Daily Sabah, has been paying attention to US institutional tensions over the past few weeks without directly commenting on the electoral redistricting dossier. However, the overall picture drawn by its columns is revealing: a Trump who intervenes without hesitation in Armenian elections, offering his 'total and complete' support to Nikol Pashinyan, who threatens Oman with military strikes during a televised cabinet meeting, and whose domestic priorities are hindered by judicial decisions. The Anadolu Agency, the official voice of the Turkish state abroad, relayed these Trumpian declarations without a strong commentary — a sobriety that says a lot about Ankara's prudence vis-à-vis Washington.

What strikes Turkish observers is the disturbing symmetry between the US situation and certain internal debates. Turkey itself has just gone through a spectacular judicial sequence: an Ankara court declared the nullity of the CHP congress in 2023, effectively removing Özgür Özel and reinstating the former president Kılıçdaroğlu. The Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) rejected the appeals. The opposition denounced a 'political coup,' the government recalled the primacy of judicial decisions. This parallelism — executive designs thwarted by judges in two democracies with very different styles — nourishes a comparative reading in think tanks close to the AKP.

In this context, the condemnation by Turkish independent press of Trump's electoral redistricting practices remains measured. Bianet English, a critical organ of the Erdogan government, devoted most of its columns to the pressures of the Council of Europe on Ankara regarding press freedom — 29 journalists detained according to a memorandum published in April 2026. The publication did not ignore the US issue, but placed it in a broader context: that of the excesses of strong executives, whether they sit in Washington or Ankara.

For Turkish diplomacy, a NATO member but in permanent negotiation with its Western allies, the judicial weakening of Trump offers an ambiguous signal. On the one hand, a US partner whose domestic authority is further fragmented complicates regional geopolitical equations. On the other hand, the demonstration that counterpowers work — even imperfectly — in the United States paradoxically reinforces the position of those who, in Turkey, demand the same guarantees for their own judicial system.