WHEN Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, returned to power in 2011 for his third successive term he triumphantly declared that the next five years would mark an era of “mastery” for his Islam-tinged Justice and Development (AK) party. His dreams included elevating himself to the presidency when it comes up next year and getting the AK-dominated parliament to endow it with executive powers. AK would run Turkey until 2023, the centenary of Ataturk’s republic.His opponents gloomily conceded that Mr Erdogan would have his way. At least they did until June, when mass protests erupted across the country in an unprecedented show of defiance against a decade of increasingly illiberal AK rule. Popular backing for the party slipped below 50%. Mr Erdogan looked vulnerable and acted scared, even banning political slogans at football matches.The protests began over plans to rip out a clutch of trees in Istanbul’s main Taksim Square. Police brutality helped them spread: five protesters, most of them from the Alevi minority, died. Mr Erdogan’s reputation, already damaged by Turkey’s unhappy habit of jailing journalists (more than any other country), frayed further….
The Economist: Europe
