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ANALYSIS
“The Turkish public seems to have given Erdogan and the AKP license to reorganize the Turkish state and in the process raze the values on which it was built. Even if they are demoralized in their defeat, Erdogan’s project will arouse significant resistance among the various ‘No’ camps. The predictable result will be the continuation of the purge that has been going on since even before last July’s failed coup including more arrests and the additional delegitimization of Erdogan’s parliamentary opposition,” CFR’s Steven A. Cook writes for Foreign Policy.
“Turkey today is increasingly isolated, particularly from the West. In recent years, Mr. Erdogan has accused Washington and Brussels of ‘dirty plots’ against Turkey. Last month, he lashed out at Germany for using ‘Nazi tactics’ and called the Dutch ‘fascists’ and ‘Nazi remnants’ for blocking efforts to campaign for the referendum in the Netherlands. This belligerence has resonated with the conservative Muslims who feel alienated from the West and resentful of the growing Islamophobia that they see there,” Elmira Bayrasli writes for the New York Times.
“It is the culmination of a decade-long effort, often propelled solely by [Erdogan’s] ambition, to tame the country’s institutions into obedience through his own steadily increasing gains at the ballot box. With the military back in its barracks after a failed coup last year and the infiltration of the bureaucracy by followers of an exiled cleric being slowly dismantled, Sunday’s victory delivers Mr. Erdogan an enfeebled parliament and not one rival to his vast new executive powers,” Mehul Srivastava, Laura Pitel, and Funja Guler write for the Financial Times.
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