Tomorrow's referendum in Turkey is about one thing: Erdogan's brazen bid for dictatorial power.
President Recip Tayyip Erdoğan has effectively used Turkey’s failed coup to isolate his internal opposition and consolidate his personal power. In the wake of the coup, the Kurds have suffered setbacks in Turkey and throughout the region. But there is also evidence of some shifts in regional alliances that may impact the deadly civil wars in Syria and Yemen, if the outside powers fueling the two conflicts can agree on negotiated solutions to these unwinnable wars.
Mr. Erdogan deliberately linked the Gülen movement to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish army has attacked in its bases in south-eastern Turkey and in Iraq. To call both the Gülen movement and the PKK ‘terrorists’ is a convenient way to sweep up all Erdogan enemies into one target and use the coup — a “gift from God” — as the opportunity to go after them with vehemence.
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