Turkey has had a very dark beginning to 2016. Once again it was hit by a shocking terror attack, this time a suicide bombing on Istanbul’s busy Sultanahmet Square that killed ten people and injured more than 15, including foreign tourists. The government immediately announced a blackout on any coverage of the attacks. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s early remarks pointed the finger at the Islamic State (ISIS), and ten Syrians have now been taken into custody in connection with it.
Whoever actually planned and executed the attack, it shows how Turkey is condemned to deal with its domestic and foreign policy faults in an increasingly tense and violent environment—and with a leader who makes much of the population increasingly nervous.
During the first days of 2016, President Erdogan made international headlines thanks to a remarkably tone-deaf statement in which he appeared to cite Germany under Adolf Hitler as a striking example of an effective presidential system.
Turkish officials sought to clarify his remarks: he had apparently meant to say that Nazi Germany was an example of a system run riot without proper checks and balances. But whatever his real point, the livid reaction illustrates the intensity of the suspicion that greets him both in Turkey and around the world.
Grand Designs
Erdogan has for years been agitating to implement a new presidential system to replace Turkey’s unicameral parliamentary democratic system. The current set-up clearly has various problems—an inert legislative system, lack of representation and an extremely high threshold for smaller parties to enter parliament—but Erdogan is behaving as if there already is an executive presidential office, and as if he’s the country’s indisputable leader.
