Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Lurch towards Islam: An Electioneering Tactic or His True Face Revealed?

With less than six months left before nationwide parliamentary polls, Erdoğan had struck an overtly, indeed aggressively conservative stance. The prime minister’s election strategy clearly targeted the 58 percent of the electorate that said 'yes' to the constitutional changes that were put to a referendum on September 12. The 42 percent who said 'no' felt unnerved by Erdoğan’s lurch not only towards religious conservatism but towards nationalism as well. The trouble for Erdoğan’s detractors, as ever, was that the opposition remained weak and divided. What would Erdoğan do with a third term? Would his slide towards conservatism persist? Or would his pragmatic side prevail? Was his lurch towards Islam mere politicking or did it convey a deeply ingrained ideology? The answer was, both. The question of just where Turkey was heading under Erdoğan would be best answered by the new constitution he had vowed to deliver.

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