Commentary
The runoff election victory of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is bad news all around.
The list of losers is long: Western and Eastern Europe, NATO, U.S. security interests in central Asia and North Africa. Financial markets aren’t pleased with Erdogan’s reelection. On June 2 the value of the Turkish lira hit a new low: 20.75 to the U.S. dollar.
But the biggest loser by far? The people of Turkey.
Erdogan won a close election but did so by employing a dictator’s vicious tricks: state-directed media censorship, judicial threat, and physical intimidation of his political opposition.
I’ve no evidence Erdogan’s stooped to assassinating his political opponents—yet….