Editorial: Turkey's Erdogan consolidates power

Early in his career, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a remark that sums up the tragedy of modern Turkey.

"Democracy is like a train," the then-Istanbul mayor said. "You get off once you have reached your destination."

Erdogan's train seems to have arrived, says Trudy Rubin in an editorial posted on Philly.com.

In last Sunday's referendum a razor-thin majority granted him massive new powers in a vote rife with irregularities.

As Erdogan cements his rule in his 1,150-room palace, he's dashed the dream that he'd create the first modern democracy in a mainly Muslim country. (This vote, which could keep him in office until 2034, also kills any miniscule hope that Turkey might enter the European Union in my lifetime.)

The hopes that Erdogan's AK Party would morph into a Muslim version of Europe's conservative Christian Democratic parties was always unrealistic.

But, having moved from prime minister to president - until now, a largely symbolic post - Erdogan's megalomania took over.

He set out to emulate Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, whose authoritarian rule built a secular state from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

"Erdogan is following the Ataturk model, using state power to shape country and society in his own image," says Soner Cagaptay, author of The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey.

"He doesn't share Ataturk's [secular] values, just his methods. He wants to use state power and education to make the country religious, conservative, and Middle Eastern."

But the country is far more complex than that: It is a mix of seculars, moderate and pious Muslims, Kurds, Christians, and Europe-oriented businessmen. That's why he only won 51 percent of the ballots.

Source: MENA