Erdoğan's
Self-Indulgence
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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Republic of Turkey's brilliant if evil
president, so dominates his country's political scene that he can afford a
bit of self-indulgence. And so he does just that. Consider the two dominant
themes of Turkish public life at present:
- Refusing to change the
anti-terrorism laws to comply with demands by the European Union:
If Erdoğan would make this meaningless semantic concession (he could
still arrest anyone he wants, just on a different charge), he would win
the gigantic benefit of visa-free travel for 75 million Turks to the
EU's Schengen Zone, a benefit that would potentially solve everything
from his Kurdish to his Syrian refugee problem.
- Changing the constitution
to change a parliamentary democracy into a presidential system: Erdoğan
has been obsessed with this transformation for years even though,
already enjoying all the powers the constitution might grant him, and
more, he has no need for it.
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European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker (R) welcomes Turkey's President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan.
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One watches with morbid fascination as a skilled, once-restrained
politician loses all sense of proportion as his power grows, reaching the
point where vanity drives his demand for these constitutional and
anti-terrorism baubles.
This is no minor matter but points to Erdoğan's likely political demise as
he edges toward making one error and one enemy too many. (May 20, 2016)
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