Erdoğan’s calamitous Syrian blunder has finally broken his spell over Turkey

Source:The Guardian Date:16Oct2019

Simon Tisdall:

As Erdoğan’s excesses and failures mount, loyalty to him is weakening. High-profile AKP defectors include not only Babacan and Davutoğlu, who plan new political parties, but also Abdullah Gül, Turkey’s former president and a man regarded for many years as Erdoğan’s chief crony. A new Nation Alliance of the CHP and the Good (İyi) party was launched earlier this year. And there is talk of a broader, anti-AKP front encompassing the pro-Kurdish HDP – although analysts suggest it’s a long shot.

Erdoğan’s grip on power remains firm, but not as firm as it once was. The furious international backlash to his Syrian disaster, publicly exposing his fallibility, will weaken it further. If new steel and other sanctions imposed by Trump intensify entrenched economic problems, causing more hardship, price rises and job losses, and if Turkish army troops begin dying in large numbers in a Syrian quagmire, this modern-day sultan could be in terminal trouble.