To me, it felt like nothing could stop Turkey from becoming the most powerful and influential European country by the end of 21st century. But then Erdogan happened. Oh well.
Turkey would be a powerful democracy were it not for the Turkish electorate!
It's an interesting paradox. Not just in Turkey but in other places too (even the US comes to mind which is also becoming more autocratic).
What if citizens of a democratic country vote to make it less democratic? Is it still a democracy?
West Asia is not Europe geographically. People there are not ethnically European, do not speak Indo-European (PIE-derived) languages and are mostly Muslims. The final bit of disrespect was conversion of Saint Sofia cathedral into a mosque. It stopped being European the moment Greeks lost it.
But Erdogan was not suddenly delivered from outer space. Erdigan was the mayor of the Turkish capital for quite some time, and then got elected president, by a reasonably honest vote.
That is, the views which Erdogan embodies have been brewing within the public, and are widespread enough. It may not have been visible at the time, or not as clearly, but it was there.
Same thing with Trump in the US, BTW.
True, but remember that all politicians are also demagogues to some degree, so his views (especially after more than 20 years in power) may not necessarily align with his base.
It's not unusual for the candidate people didn’t vote for to be the one who would actually defend their rights better.
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side not: Istanbul is not the capital of Turkiye but Ankara is.
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That’s… I mean… What made you think that? That seems like such a hot take that you should explain your rationale a bit.