Tyrant or steadying hand?
The Erdogan era is about to enter its next stage
Aug 9th 2014 | ANKARA AND ISTANBUL
ON A rainy Sunday evening Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was delivering a fiery speech full of references to the glories of Islam and Turkey’s Ottoman past when a woman on a stretcher was lifted to the podium. He knelt down, took her hand and offered comfort. “Allahu akbar [Allah is great],” she screamed. A sea of supporters, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags, went wild. These scenes at a recent rally in Istanbul have been repeated across Turkey as Mr Erdogan campaigns to become the country’s first popularly elected president.
More:Turkey’s election: Tyrant or steadying hand? | The Economist
