On Aug. 28, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan took over Turkey’s presidency from Abdullah Gul, his comrade-in-arms and co-founder of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), he declared the day “the birthday of New Turkey.”
In terms of the continuity of the existing constitutional system, Erdogan’s pronouncement is devoid of any substance and a poor metaphor. The only new thing about Turkey so far is the way Erdogan was elected — the country's first popular presidential election. And, of course, his ascent to the presidency is a novelty in itself. So Erdogan seems to suggest that he himself is the embodiment of the “New Turkey.”
