Recep Tayyip Erdoğan isn’t afraid of making enemies. These days he is at war on almost every conceivable front. He first rose to national prominence in 2002 when his Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a majority in parliament and he became Prime Minister. The party has its roots in the Turkish tradition of political Islam (opposed to the strong Turkish secular traditions dating back to Atatürk). During a brief stint as mayor of Istanbul, Erdoğan earned a reputation as a mild reformer on issues such as traffic and pollution and there were brief hopes that he could be the face of a more tolerant and democratic political Islam. These soon crashed in flames as his tendency to regard politics as a form of death match became all too apparent.
Today, the range of Erdoğan’s enemies is truly impressive: secular civil society, the Turkish Left, the Kurds, Shi’a Muslims, the young environmentalists of Gezi Park, Armenians and other minority groups in Turkey, and, following the shooting down of a Russian fighter plane by Turkish forces in November, Russian boss Vladimir Putin. One might be forgiven for thinking that Putin and Erdoğan might have found some common ground as two of the more humourless and intolerant specimens the global political class has on offer. But no.
