The Sultan (Erdogan) is ailing
Turkey is an increasingly troubled country run by an “unofficial” dictatorship under the self-appointed sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party.
In recent years, Erdogan’s grandiose Neo-Ottoman hallucinations have transformed Turkey into a model rogue Islamist state threatening peace and security in the Eastern Mediterranean and, by extension, worldwide.
Erdogan rules via a deep security apparatus that has blossomed since a 2016 attempted coup, which many saw as a false flag Erdogan-instigated event designed to cement the neo-sultan’s grip on the country.
The Erdogan sultanate, however, may be approaching its point of no return because its absolute ruler is obviously ailing.
Erdogan falling by the wayside will trigger a struggle between a Babel of Islamist hardliners and the thin line of “progressive” younger generation politicians, like the mayor of Constantinople (Istanbul) Ekrem Imamoglu and his Ankara counterpart Mansur Yavas—and Turkey should brace herself for a period of “out of the frying pan and into the fire,” which will further increase regional instability and threats of war.
As always, dealing with Turkey is an exercise of “you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Erdogan Might Be Too Sick to Keep Leading Turkey
Since 2019, Turkey experts, journalists, and pollsters have been eyeing the Turkish general election scheduled for 2023. This is probably because the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered humiliating defeats of its mayoral candidates in Turkey’s major population centers, including Istanbul, in the 2019 local elections. Regular polling since those elections reveal that the AKP’s popularity is soft, even as it maintains a grip on Turkey’s political institutions and the media. Anecdotally, it seems that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worn out his welcome, especially among young people.
Erdogan may indeed be vulnerable ahead of 2023—just not necessarily in the way most people think. There are signs he may be too ill to run for reelection at all.
In recent months, a series of videos have surfaced in which the Turkish leader has not looked well. Some of them are not as clear as others, but, taken together, they raise some obvious questions about Erdogan’s health. In one clip, for example, the president appears to need the assistance of his wife and an aid as he negotiates a set of stairs. In another, he seems to shuffle and have some difficulty walking at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. And, in a video that received considerable attention this past July, Erdogan seems to fade out and slur his words during a televised holiday greeting to AKP members.
Since 2019, Turkey experts, journalists, and pollsters have been eyeing the Turkish general election scheduled for 2023. This is probably because the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered humiliating defeats of its mayoral candidates in Turkey’s major population centers, including Istanbul, in the 2019 local elections. Regular polling since those elections reveal that the AKP’s popularity is soft, even as it maintains a grip on Turkey’s political institutions and the media. Anecdotally, it seems that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worn out his welcome, especially among young people.
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