Protests In Turkey, ‘Global Statesman’ Abroad: Erdogan’s ‘Parallel Universes’

Istanbul:

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has probably never held more global sway: he will host the first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks in three years on Thursday, days after his country’s militant nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), dissolved.

His growing capital as international statesman – working towards stability in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and receiving accolades from US President Donald Trump for it – is turbocharging Turkey’s rising regional influence.

Yet the timing of it appears odd and even agonising to many at home who fear it could bolster his domestic political goals.

The arrest and jailing of Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, prompted the largest protests in a decade in March and April over what critics called a politicised and anti-democratic legal crackdown.