I lived in Izmir in the 90's, and the vibe was actually fairly liberal. The locals seemed to feel pretty free, optimistic, and not overly worried about their government. Sad to see things regressing so much.
Maybe if as a people we stopped thinking in terms of funny plots like "they are trying to dilute the peeps" and opened our eyes to the facts before our eyes, we'd be in a better shape.
It's like none of the 'leaders of the world' have read any history. Or they have, and are arrogant enough to think 'that won't happen now that I'M in charge'.
It is an authoritarian, Orwellian government out of the book.