Will Erdogan's presidency firm up Turkey's regional position?
Turkey is suffering serious blows to its security and economy because of its own regional policy mistakes, and can expect more of the same from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as president.
The Turkey of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who is expected to be elected president in just over a week — is an increasingly isolated country, and not just in the West, where antipathy for Erdogan has been rising steadily over the past few years because of his abrasive manners.
This is also the case in the Middle East, where Ankara has few communication channels left with regional capitals and where polls show Erdogan’s popularity is waning. His past claims about Turkey’s rapidly rising regional clout and global influence are now a distant echo.
