Erdogan returns

Turkey's slide into authoritarianism is both a tragedy and a lesson

Turkey’s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been serving as the president of the country since 2014, and before that was prime minister for a decade, has declared victory in the country’s hotly-contested presidential election. Mr Erdogan now has unprecedented amounts of power. His party, the Justice and Development Party or AKP, has a majority in the legislature, and Turkey’s laws have been changed to expand the executive power of the presidency. Following an abortive coup, Mr Erdogan held a controversial referendum last year to enshrine these changes in the country's constitution. He has also used the coup to root