Ukrainian Institute for the Future -

Turkey enters the period of “Erdogan’s sultanate”. This year, new amendments to the Constitution come into force, which will give the president extraordinary powers and will allow him to manage the country solely until at least 2023. Over the past 10 years, Erdogan succeeded in strengthening his power tenfold. He suppressed the Kurdish movement in the southeast, threw the main political opponents behind bars, destroyed all opposition media and newspapers, defeated the most sociopolitical Hizmet movement, which he considered a threat to his power, and also conducted large-scale repressions in the army. For Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan actually became a new “sultan”, concentrating all the powers in the hands of his Justice and Development Party. His power became so great that he even began to look at the foundations of the Turkish structure that had been developed after the First World War. He challenged Kemalism and the foundations of temporal power, which were laid down in the time of the great Mustafa Kemal. Turkey began to play an extremely important role in the region. Except domestic policy, Erdogan introduced changes into the foreign policy. He was drawn into the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, challenging Riyadh – his former ally. He set off a real war against the Kurds and twice invaded the territory of neighboring Syria and once – the territory of northern Iraq. Erdogan has openly opposed Egypt and began the militarization of the Red Sea, which can create a direct conflict between Ankara and Cairo.