, Columnist
Why Strongmen Rulers Love Their Emigres
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, knew what he was doing when he courted overseas voters.
Courting his Berliners.
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The vehemence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's battle for the votes of the Turkish diaspora in Europe surprised many watchers. Was Erdogan really willing to burn bridges with the EU, Germany, and the Netherlands just to impress a few million people who shared his ethnicity but left their country? It turns out Erdogan knew what he was doing: The diaspora in Europe gave him almost 22 percent of his victory margin in the April 16 constitutional referendum.
Diasporas can be powerful forces for strongman rulers such as Erdogan, Russia's Vladimir Putin, India's Narendra Modi or China's Communist leaders. They are forces with which the West increasingly will have to reckon.