New Turkey seizes private property like old Ottomans

From the brutal expropriation of olive groves to seizing control of a private bank, President Erdo?an's 'New Turkey' dispossesses some of its people in 'pragmatic' ways that once led to the collapse of the Ottomans. The future of Turkish democracy is still bright, though. "I don't want to sell my house. Wasn't property considered sacred?" an angry local named Hasan Özdo?an had told a Do?an News Agency correspondent in September 2014, after he furiously reacted to the mayor of Istanbul's central Beyo?lu district, whom he coincidentally ran into during a funeral. 

Hasan Özdo?an
Özdo?an was claiming the municipality, whose mayor is from Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), expropriated his house against his will, paying a price much lower than its real value. After four years of legal efforts, he failed to stop the expropriation. The municipality, which controls some of Istanbul's highly lucrative areas of urban transformation, "did it for money and to take away the house," in Özdo?an's own words.

Controversial practices of expropriation or confiscation of private property can be seen in any country and at any time. For example "Leviathan," a Russian film considered a favorite at this year's Oscars, is about a small town mayor who deprives the film's hero of his property. However, director Andrey Zvyagintsev says the story was inspired by the real-life drama of Marvin Heemeyer in the United States.

The mayor of Beyo?lu, still popular even after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, as seen by his re-election in the March 2014 local polls, has nothing to do with the fictional tyrant in "Leviathan." On the contrary, he is the smiling face of an increasingly oppressive system, which is a unique product of...