Your Evening Briefing: A Turkish Election the Whole World Is Watching
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Residential apartment blocks and office buildings in the Istanbul Finance Center. This weekend’s Turkish presidential election has the world watching, given the potential consequences far beyond the nation’s borders.
Photographer: Moe Zoyari/BloombergRecep Tayyip Erdogan was halfway through a well-choreographed TV interview last month when the cameras unexpectedly cut away. Someone in the room could be heard exclaiming “Oh no!” The Turkish president reappeared 20 minutes later looking pale and tired, said he had a stomach bug, and then disappeared from public view for two days. In the heat of the most pivotal election campaign in a generation, Turks got a rare glimpse of life without him. Now the question resonating worldwide is whether they want to call a formal end to his two decades in power.
Erdogan is seeking re-election on May 14 after having molded the NATO military power in his own image. He’s changed just about everything, from the basic tools for managing the $900 billion economy, to Turkey’s positioning on the chessboard of a new Cold War. That’s why so much hangs on the neck-and-neck contest between Erdogan, 69, and his main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance who has framed the incumbent administration in unsparing terms.