Erdogan's Turkey

If you have the time and interest, see a long article about the impact of the Erdogan government in Turkey for The New York Review of Books. It's the story of a government which, in the opinion of author Christopher de Bellaigue, started out positive and slowly evolved into the negative force it is today.

The article's lead sentence is prophetic:

Now, more than ever, it is harder to argue for the compatibility of political Islam and democracy.

Taken together with de Bellaigue's conclusion below, the article suggests troubles ahead for Turkey:

By picking fights with those who disagree with him and encouraging sectarianism, he (Erdogan) is condemning his country to a period of turbulence, while undermining his own reputation as a path-finding democrat in the Muslim world.

Erdogan appears to be a narcissistic politician who began to believe his own government's propaganda, resulting in delusions of grandeur and irreplaceability.