"Erdogan 1, Ataturk 0
Turkey’s generals resign en masse—and make the country’s strongman even stronger.
Aug 7, 2011 10:00 AM EDT
Flush with his third and most resounding electoral victory, Recep Tayyip Erdogan bestrides the Turkish stage like a colossus. That victory was his alone: polling shows that more than half of the 50 percent of Turks who cast their votes for the piously Islamic ruling Freedom and Justice Party (AKP) last month were voting for the ruggedly populist prime minister himself, not his party. His electoral pitch looked far ahead, to 2023—the 100th anniversary of the founding, under Kemal Atatürk, of the modern, and secular, Turkish state following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He makes no bones about intending to be in charge from now until then, as a president endowed with greatly expanded powers under a new Constitution that will refashion Turkey on the model of what he calls “democratic conservatism,” but that his political opponents grimly characterize as Islamo-fascist."
More:Turkey's Military Resignations Make Erdogan Even Stronger - The Daily Beast
