As Iran’s protesters stir global debate about whether the country’s repressive theocracy is finally coming unstuck, in neighboring Turkey, the question looming ever larger is whether Turkey's shaky democracy is about to die.

The blanket repression and hollowing out of the country’s notionally democratic institutions spearheaded by the country’s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the July 2016 coup attempt amply justify such angst. But the shroud of gloom enveloping the country was pierced, however fleetingly, when former President Abdullah Gul finally spoke up.

The man who has long been touted as Erdogan’s sole credible rival took to Twitter to criticize a pair of new decrees that critics charge effectively legitimize violence carried out by ordinary citizens to defend Erdogan and his government against their perceived enemies.

Using typically guarded language, Gul wrote that while he believed the decrees were issued to protect “our heroic citizens” who poured into the streets to face down the coup plotters on the night of the coup, their wording was “vague” and “troubling” and not in keeping with the spirit of the rule of law.