In 2011, as regional leaders were toppled from power, one after the other, Turkey’s strident Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked like he had it all: a thriving economy (the world’s fastest-growing after China’s), increased visibility on the world stage and popular support at home (he was elected for a third term with almost half of votes cast). A tough-talking survivor of several political bans on earlier incarnations of his Islamist party, a brief prison term and alleged attempts by the military to oust him from power, Erdogan played big and seemingly always won. Erdogan’s third term was to have cemented his legacy. “Mubarak, we are human beings,” he told the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a televised speech shortly after the uprising in Cairo’s Tahrir Square began. “We are not immortal. We will die one day, and we will be questioned for the things that we left behind. The important thing is to leave behind sweet memories.” But Erdogan appeared to forget his own advice; he began to do things that guaranteed he would leave behind some less-than-sweet memories. He proposed legislative limits to birth control, singled out in speeches journalists critical of his government, called on prosecutors to censor a steamy TV show about the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman, pushed through a law limiting alcohol sales and commissioned a grand mosque to be built on one of Istanbul’s few remaining open hilltops. (MORE: After a Violent Weekend Crackdown, Turkey Braces for More Chaos) Those steps may have been his undoing and, as Turkey reels from a violent police crackdown on mass protests that began over demands to save a central Istanbul park from demolition, Erdogan’s legacy now looks distinctly threatened. Tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters in 60 cities took to the streets in the past two weeks — the biggest challenge yet to his decadelong rule. Riot police wielding tear gas and water cannons turned downtown Istanbul and Ankara into battlefields. Four people died and thousands were wounded. At least 300 people have since been detained in police sweeps; they are being questioned about their roles![]()
