Will Erdoğan Cheat His Way to Victory?
ISTANBUL—Few members of Turkey’s battered political opposition were surprised when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the constitutional referendum of April 2017, which transformed the country from a European-style parliamentary government into a presidential system. What did surprise them: that after campaigning relentlessly, partnering with nationalists who were once his enemies, stirring up tensions with Germany and the Netherlands to bring out the diaspora vote, and allowing his supporters to intimidate those campaigning against expanding his powers, Erdoğan’s margin of victory was just under 3 percent. Allegations of vote irregularities, meanwhile, could have affected up to 2.5 million ballots. Galvanized by the results, Erdoğan’s opponents took to the streets to demand a recount. They later marched across the country to bring together the disparate opponents of Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Erdoğan first rose to power in the early 2000s as a reformer and
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