The Turks have it worse under Erdogan than the Britons after Brexit.
What's that supposed to mean ?
I think it has more to do with the fact that Erdogan's "reelection" was foreseeable, while the Brexit vote went against polls.
What's that supposed to mean ?
I think it has more to do with the fact that Erdogan's "reelection" was foreseeable, while the Brexit vote went against polls.
UK losers of society had/have a higher living standard than huge majority of Turkey in the recent years and specially pre-Erdogan era.
But relatively speaking Turkish people, at least economically speaking, are still doing better than pre-Erdogan era, of course not as well as 2000s and 2010s, whereas Brexit overall has not much upside, except autonomy, but admittedly, maybe that was the point...
Nevertheless, I would argue Brexit did nothing for most people who put their hopes on it, it was the UK version of Trump, the economically disadvantaged people acting out to give the establishment the finger, at least that´s how they perceived what they were doing.
In both cases, it was not fighting the symptoms though.
In Turkey´s case, there is no guarantee that the alternative to Erdogan would do any better, and like Harashima said, the world in total is developing towards "strong people", to use an euphemism, and in that context it´s not the worst scenario to have someone who has shown his presence internationally vs the opposition who, giving them the benefit of the doubt, really have no experience to go through next difficult years, or worst cast scenario, would completely open up Turkey to outside interference and influence.
If Erdogan can get the inflation under control which of course is a big IF, there is a lot of potential for the upside in the next decade with all the big projects that are going on, especially in regards to being an arms and energy provider (both own reserves + pipelines from other pvodiers). And this has happened all under Erdogan, and there are a lot of people who do not believe in the opposition since their leaders have kept Turkey as a close to third world country for 80 years after Turkey´s founding.
And a lot of those people do not mind the decrease of human rights and the push towards more authority for him, and the country being more religious and conservative, just the truth.
Hence multilayered imo.