Erdogan made himself indispensable – to Turkey and the West

Some Turks voted for the devil they knew. More voted for the hero they knew. Either way, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s re-election in the most fiercely contested election of his career last Sunday was a victory for fear over hope, for security over uncertainty, and of the past over the future. 

Erdogan has, over the last five years, seen the economic miracle he helped create collapse into runway inflation, cronyism and gross economic mismanagement. Yet despite a litany of failures that would have demolished the career of any western European politician, it’s easy to see why over 52 per cent of Turks voted to stick with Erdogan. His opponent, the avuncular economist Kemal Kilicdaroglu, may have been the united opposition’s candidate. But the parties that joined in a shotgun marriage to back him are in reality united by nothing except the desire for power. A Kilicdaroglu administration would have commenced with an explosion of political horse-trading for ministries.