Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is showing signs of dangerous authoritarian subversion of the institutions of government in which, he has been so successful in winning popular support and reducing the role of the army in Turkish politics. After winning three elections for the prime ministership in a row, each with a larger majority, he is due to be the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate for the presidency.
No one doubts his popularity, but there are valid fears that he will misuse his success at the polls to undermine Turkey’s fragile democracy and restructure the political system to serve his personal interests. He has muzzled the media and has dismissed or arrested policemen whom he wanted removed.
However, more importantly, he is also talking about building a more powerful role for the presidency by merging the executive powers of the presidency and prime minster’s office into a new executive role for the head of state. His party members are talking about Erdogan staying in office until 2019, which means he will have been in power for 16 years!
