Until a decade ago the Turkish military had complete control over civilian politics and the judiciary. Elected governments had to obey the limits of executive power determined not by the voters, but by the military command. A question posed by Roman poet Juvenal almost 2,000 years ago remains important today: "Who watches the watchmen?"Since coming to power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) implemented a number of democratic reforms to end the military's unwelcome presence in the political arena. Although certain news organizations call on the Turkish military to "perform their duty" by ousting the democratically elected government, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), now under civilian leadership, remains exclusively interested in key national security issues such as border security.The military's non-involvement in politics is a good thing for democracy and the strengthening of civilian institutions. The republican elite - the old guard, as it were - who like to think of themselves as the ultimate source of political legitimacy, however, are unimpressed. They have, after all, learned to engage in undemocratic tirades against an openly religious political leadership without relying on bayonets. By orchestrating the Gezi Park protests in May 2013, the republicans discovered a new and cheaper way of challenging the democratically elected government. An attempt to occupy the prime minister's office and widespread acts of vandalism, they figured, looked better on television than an actual military coup.This proto-fascist campaign not only remains popular with Kemalist hardliners, but also has a broad following among a handful of Jacobins as well as Turkish nationalists. Talking heads and artists, in an effort to catch up with the rest, make the same case. Knowing full well that they will not come to power through elections in the foreseeable future, this unholy alliance has taken its operation to the next level, fearing that Sunday's parliamentary elections might be their last chance to bring back the good old days.Currently, opposition parties are telling people that they would rather revolt than gracefully accept the outcome of an election for which the playing field has been leveled. In newspapers, on television and on social media, the opposition threatens to take extraordinary measures if the AK Party regains a parliamentary majority on Nov. 1. Every day, politicians, academics and journalists hold the electorate at figurative gunpoint to make sure they get their way. Some people are already saying that if the AK Party forms a single-party government, they will create deadlock. Others suggest that the people might find themselves amid a bloody civil war if they do not choose wisely.Sadly enough, this small group of people calling for mob justice to silence a vast chunk of the electorate has a field day whenever they appear before Western audiences. In an effort to distort the facts on the ground, a number of groups are lobbying Western governments and broadcasting internationally. Certain Western journalists and politicians who enjoy close ties with such groups like to call Turkey a dictatorship even though the country remains one of the strongest democracies in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.In recent years it has been particularly interesting to see how a negative story gets published in Turkey and proceeds to appear in the international media only to be quoted by the original source as proof of the country's troubles.As a democrat and journalist who called for the closer involvement of the Kurdish political movement and Turkey's leftists in the political arena at a time when the military was calling all the shots, I am shocked and appalled by the current state of affairs. As such, I believe that it is important to defend the political rights of millions of people by supporting the AK Party despite my disagreements with their policies.At this point in time, siding with the people is a minimum requirement to call oneself a democrat. The same moral imperative applies to Western democrats who cannot afford to stand idly by as a small group of privileged elites try to deny a popular movement, which was forced to stay on the sidelines for decades, the right to govern upon winning free and fair elections.Let's take baby steps and double-check facts about Turkey by diversifying sources. Is it really so difficult?