Turkey is sliding into dictatorship
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is carrying out the harshest crackdown in decades. The West must not abandon Turkey
TURKEY matters not just for its size, but also as a bellwether of the political forces shaping the world. For centuries it was the seat of a great empire. Today, as a frontier state, it must cope with the violence spewing out of war-ravaged Syria; it is a test case of whether democracy can be reconciled with political Islam; and it must navigate between Western liberalism and the authoritarian nationalism epitomised by Russia. In recent years under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has gone backwards. This weekend it can begin to put that right.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The slide into dictatorship”
From the April 15th 2017 edition
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