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Why does President Erdogan admire Belarus?

Erdogan prefers the self-styled “democracy” of Belarus and hails it against the failures and double standards of the West.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko welcomes Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during their meeting at the Palace of Independence in Minsk, Belarus, November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko - RTX2T5HA
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There was a time when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a frequent traveler to Western capitals, where he was welcomed as the leader of a rising and democratizing Turkey. Those days are long gone.

In the list of the Turkish president’s foreign visits in the past year, there were no Western destinations, with the exceptions of NATO or United Nations summits. Rather, the list includes countries like Qatar, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Peru, Uganda, Azerbaijan, Guinea, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ecuador, Kenya and Somalia. Since the attempted coup in July, five countries have been added to this list, which are also unmistakably non-Western: Russia, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

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