Turkey: A Belated Farewell to Erdoğan?

by Burak Bekdil • March 30, 2023 at 5:00 am

Polls suggest that although the presidential race will be tight, the gap against Erdoğan is widening.... [T]he CHP-led opposition bloc, with the participation of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, would win a combined 55.4% of the nationwide vote.
Reuters reported that new polls show the opposition's presidential candidate, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leading against Erdoğan by more than 10 percentage points ahead of elections seen by many as the most consequential in Turkey's history.
Polling in Turkey can be a murky business. But with or without polls, realities spell existential danger for one of the world's most anti-Semitic and disruptive leaders.

Ahead of elections on May 14, Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is battling for survival after 21 corrupt and autocratic years in power. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly a month and a half before the most critical presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey's modern history, it is still too early to make a guess as to who will win: all indicators show that May 14 will be an extremely tight race. The results may even be inconclusive: there may be chaos, vote rigging, allegations and objections from both sides, the electoral board having to struggle with which side it should politically favor, potential re-runs in disputed districts, further disputes and even potential street violence.

An overall re-vote is also one of the possibilities. Another is that the country's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, battling for his survival after 21 corrupt and autocratic years in power, wins the presidential race but that his party loses its parliamentary majority. This result will mean governmental and administrative chaos.

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Axis vs. Allies, Then and Now

by Lawrence Kadish • March 30, 2023 at 2:00 am

In their summit meeting, Chinese and Russian leadership have done democracy a service of sorts. They have made their intentions clear and unmistakable. We need to have the strength, wisdom, insight, and courage to confront an alliance whose intent is to reduce America to a historic afterthought.

For Chinese and Russian leadership to meet over the bodies of Ukrainian freedom fighters sends a message to free nations around the world. This 21st Century Axis has the same goals of its historic predecessor: global domination. Pictured: China's President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023. (Photo by Pavel Byrkin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

World War II was already a year old when Germany, Japan and Italy formally signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940, creating a military alliance among three nations intent on world domination. History would subsequently call them the Axis powers. It would be another year before America entered the conflict, but this Axis alliance of power sent a sharp and chilling message to Washington. There was no mistaking now that our nation, and our very civilization, was now in serious jeopardy.

In its wake, America accelerated its defense planning and just prior to the Axis pact being signed, the United States reintroduced the draft in recognition that, pact or no pact, democracy was at risk.

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