Did Turkey Gobble Up Democracy?
Christopher Caldwell
June 29, 2018 1:27 AM
To judge from Western newspapers, the elections on June 24 in Turkey brought a crisis for democracy. The “crisis” is that Turks will continue to be governed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the perennially popular Islamist former mayor of Istanbul, for whom they voted overwhelmingly, and not by Muharrem Ince, the secularist darling of Western journalists, who lost to Erdogan by 20 percentage points and 11 million votes. In Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine calls Erdogan Turkey’s “first elected sultan,” a “master of manipulation.” In London, the Financial Times alluded to opposition warnings of a “one-man regime.”
More:Erdogan’s Re-Election in Turkey Does Not Signal a ‘Crisis of Democracy’