Turkey's iron lady: 'It's time for the men in power to feel fear'

Meral Akşener stood near a statue of the Turkish republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in the Black Sea town of Giresun earlier this year, as she lambasted and mocked the ruling party of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

His apparatchiks had hurt their hands, she told the farmers in the crowd, counting the millions of euros with which they’d enriched themselves while in office. Across the square a giant banner implored: “Save us, iron lady.”
Whatever the president touches turns to dust, she said. He once dubbed Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s dictator and ally turned foe, “Brother Assad.”