Understanding Erdogan's Victory with Pinar Tremblay

Description

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emerged as victor in Turkey’s presidential elections last month, though many Turks had expected him to lose due to the poor state of the economy, a massive refugee problem, and twenty years of growing dictatorship. Some analysts believe this outcome was inevitable because the president controls every lever of power, including the parliament, military, police, intelligence agencies, judiciary, media to and also the election commission that counts the votes. Why is this a minority viewpoint? What does it imply for Turkey’s future? For U.S. foreign policy?

Pinar Tremblay is a lecturer at the Cal Poly Pomona department of political science. She writes regularly for Al-Monitor and other publications about Turkey, with a focus on the impact of Islam in politics. She holds a BA in international relations and a MA in peace studies.