Erdogan’s dream turns into a nightmare

It might have been an ordinary, pleasant Christmas for most of the world, but Dec. 25, 2013, will go down in history as a sheer nightmare for Turkey’s once seemingly invincible, unchallenged and popular prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The day saw three key cabinet ministers step down, as Erdogan's once solid political power shattered, and his government sank deeper beneath a massive graft probe the includes accusations of bribery involving four ministers and amounts roughly totaling $130 million. Later that day, Ergogan felt compelled to reshuffle the cabinet, replacing 10 ministers, which nonetheless still left him treading uncertain political waters. His days of glory and arrogance, and as the focus of admiration, have turned into a fraught, open-ended quest for political survival.

In addition to their prime minister woes, Turkey’s anxious citizens have also had to face the bitter fact that after some two years of arduous but fruitless work, the multiparty, parliamentary Constitution Commission was disbanded due to the constant absence of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The exercise thus ends with no progress to report on a new, civilian social contract. The latter was expected, but what has shaken Turkey are the resignations of three key AKP ministers, all implicated in the corruption scandal.