A Time to Plan

Erdogan is Turkey’s most consequential leader since Atatürk, but his day of reckoning is coming. While Erdogan may have Turks cowed, Turks will no more submit themselves to decades of further dictatorship than the Iranians who today march in the street against the similar repression they face. Rather than try to out-Erdogan Erdogan in terms of xenophobia, paranoia, and grievance, Turkey’s future rests with the willingness of Turks from across the spectrum to say enough and turn to the task of restoring Turkey to its democratic path. The time to plan is now, for the change could come sooner than most Turks expect.

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Image: Reuters.