Erdogan blessing the crowds TURKEY’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, became the country’s first popularly elected president on August 10th, marking his ninth consecutive electoral victory during 12 years in power. He received 52% of the vote, averting the need for a run-off. The result has bolstered Mr Erdogan’s increasingly tight grip on power and prompted further worries about the future of Turkey’s shaky democracy.In a victory speech at his Justice and Development (AK) party headquarters in Ankara, Mr Erdogan declared that this was the “start of a new era”, signalling his intentions to continue to rule the country from the presidential palace and to give Turkey a new constitution that would, among other things, grant him executive powers. “The national will” would now find its voice in a “new Turkey” in which all citizens would be embraced regardless of their ethnicity or creed. Yet throughout his campaign Mr Erdogan struck an unabashedly polarising tone, taking aim at the Alevi faith of the main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and the ethnic Zaza roots of his Kurdish rival, Selahattin Demirtas.Mr Erdogan made clear…
