If one replaced the cliched “Moment of Truth’’ with “Year of Truth,” 2014 may well be the “Year of Truth” for Turkey. First, the local elections at the end of March and then the first-ever direct election of the president by popular vote will make 2014 the “determining year” for Turkey. We were already expecting it to mark the beginning of the direction of the coming decade, but it is something else to be the “Year of Truth."
The “Year of Truth” may spell the end of the Erdogan era and with it, the eventual demise of so-called moderate Islam. 2014 derives its importance because the words “Turkey” and “Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” which in many ways are synonymous, and the “Year of Truth” cover it all.