Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now Turkey’s first directly elected president. Constitutionally, he is not the chief executive of the country — Ahmet Davutoglu, the new prime minister, is. Yet, it is no secret that Erdogan plans to run Turkey from the presidential palace. This is Turkey’s problem to solve.

The United States and the Europeans have a different problem: Whom do they talk to when they have to engage Turkish leaders on matters of critical importance and joint decisions have to be taken? Erdogan, through his sheer personality and control of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) — which he created, and rules Turkey — will want to be US President Barack Obama’s interlocutor, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande. Do these leaders take Erdogan’s phone call when they need to discuss Syria or Iraq, or any other issue of common interest? This is going to be a tough call.

Erdogan did not assume the Turkish presidency to become second fiddle to anyone. He is a consummate politician, a workaholic and a control freak. In the numerous tape recordings that became public last year, Erdogan is overheard ordering editors to fire specific columnists and interfering with news coverage. In one incident, he called from Morocco to complain about the content of the news ticker being displayed by a Turkish television network. In another set of conversations, he is heard chastising a government employee for authorizing the sale of a specific piece of property in Istanbul without asking him for his approval.

Over the years, Erdogan has built a massive patronage network that goes well beyond the AKP that he dominates, and includes business circles, media owners and religious and nonreligious nongovernmental organizations. Estimates vary, but some 60% of the media in Turkey today slavishly take their orders from Erdogan, and businessmen have pumped money into the patronage network to receive special favors and government tenders.