What good is it if a man gains great political power but permanently loses his country and its international partners? Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might soon find out.

Erdogan is running an increasingly divisive campaign in the run-up to the April 16 referendum to possibly expand his role in Turkish politics. In recent days, his tone has become more disdainful and dangerous than usual. On March 5, it was reported that several German municipalities had canceled rallies by a Europe-based Turkish nongovernmental organization allied with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The rallies would have involved speeches by ministers of Erdogan’s AKP with the intention of whipping up votes to pass the referendum among Turkish citizens living in Germany and other European countries. Erdogan blamed the cancellations on the German federal government and charged that the move was “not much different than Nazi practices.” The irony here is that Erdogan uttered remarks in 2016 that some observers interpreted as admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Of course, Erdogan’s reaction did not come out of thin air. For much of last week, European politicians had been urging AKP politicians not to campaign in Europe out of concerns that they might create animosity among the millions of Turks who live there. Erdogan and his AKP saw the move as European governments’ not-so-subtle endorsement of the “no” camp. Add to the mix the “spying imams” crisis that erupted between Ankara and its European partners in February, and it is easy to see why the “Nazi” crisis boiled over now.

The sad part is that by Erdogan standards, the president had been running a relatively sane campaign. On Feb. 18, he told reporters that although he “would not pressure those who wished to vote 'no' in the referendum,” the supporters of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) all clamored for the “no’s” to win. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, in lockstep with the AKP behind Erdogan, sang a similar tune on Feb. 5 when he argued, “‘Yes’ because the PKK, FETO, HDP say ‘no.’” The AKP government is depicting the HDP and PKK, which Ankara has designated a terrorist group, as extensions of each other, Many Turks, and the AKP, refer to the Gulenist movement as the FETO, an acronym for the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization.