Summer 2013 has become a major milestone in the career of Turkey’s popular and populist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Taksim-Gezi Park protests that broke out in Istanbul at the end of May, beginning of June have made Erdogan tenser than ever. Some of his domestic allies have abandoned him. But the prime minister, with an amazing display of energy, hit the road, organized mass rallies and began to challenge all opposition with hard-line polemics.

The tremors in Turkey were followed by the events in Egypt, the toppling and detention of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in a military coup, removal of the Muslim Brotherhood from power and then massacres of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo’s two squares.

In a word, Egypt was an outrage for Erdogan. The loudest voice against the coup was his. His fury was not confined only to the Egyptian coup-makers and Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Led by Europe, the entire West got its share of the Turkish prime minister’s indignation and defiance. He went after not only the states but institutions such as the United Nations, the Security Council and particularly its five permanent members.

In short, summer 2013 did not start well for Erdogan, it didn’t move along well and might even end up worse, if you add the anticipated developments in Syria.