Erdogan is running out of time

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has all but run out of surgical remedies as charges of graft against his Justice and Development Party (AKP) continue to grow like an aggressive tumour. With his three key ministers resigning in the aftermath and one of them, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, delivering an almost fatal blow by asking him to also step down, Erdogan — were it not for his authoritarian blinkers — would have been able to see that he was cornered.

His cabinet reshuffle last week to close ranks against the deepening crisis and his blatant abuse of the law in purging it of scores of police officers who were investigating ministers in his cabinet are not moves the people of Turkey are in any mood to endorse, particularly as memories of the Gezi Park protests in May and Erdogan’s heavy-handed crackdown on demonstrators (fighting to stop urbanisation of a green area) are still fresh in their minds. But this is not a recent travesty.

By all accounts, the performance of AKP over the last decade has been a questionable interpretation of democratic processes as Erdogan preferred to have a vice-like grip over every aspect of governance, suffocating freedom of expression in its many forms. His political bete noire, however, are the Gulenists, once allies and now his opponents. An integral part of Turkey’s polity, they have presented Erdogan challenges he chose to tackle in politically disastrous ways all along.

In perfecting needless belligerence, Erdogan is also alienating important friends — the European Union and America, who are discernibly uncomfortable with the way he is pushing Turkey into a political and economic crisis as the stock markets take a beating and the lira falls. As an emerging economy and a strong regional force, Turkey can ill afford this setback.

This is the most serious challenge in Erdogan’s 11-year rule, a predicament he has brought upon himself as he deliberately parted ways with democratic principles. Even as he keeps one eye on next year’s two crucial elections — presidential and local — the current crisis in Turkey points to a rocky road ahead for him.