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Turks Have Voted Away Their Democracy
Erdoğan’s election victory advances his vision of absolute control.
- Diego Cupolo
- The Atlantic
First they ignored him.
Then they laughed at him.
Then they jailed him.
Then he became perhaps Turkey’s most powerful leader in 80 years.
Last night, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extended his 16-year dominance over Turkey with a victory in the first round of the country’s snap elections, winning 52.5 percent of the vote.
In the eyes of his roughly 26 million supporters, it was a resounding victory for the powerless, the infuriated majority of a polarized world split between the…