Eli Lake, Columnist

Don’t Let Erdogan Steal the Election

The U.S. and Europe cannot allow Turkey’s president to annul the results of votes in Ankara and Istanbul.

April 3, 2019 at 5:00 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Power is more important to him than legitimacy.
Photographer: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

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Turkey’s elections on Sunday were a political earthquake for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist coalition.

His party lost control of Ankara and Istanbul, where Erdogan was mayor from 1994 to 1998. Kurdish nationalists won contests in eight provinces despite a government campaign of state intimidation and persecution. Though he was not on the ballot, Sunday’s vote was a rebuke of an authoritarian leader who has consolidated his power through a dubious constitutional referendum.