Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spent the better part of this year driving tensions between Turks and Kurds higher and higher in a bid to win elections and accrue to himself even more power. In doing so, he undid his own previous achievements in forging a measure of peace between the two groups. Erdogan is not the only cause of the phenomenon described in the FT; the story also points to developments elsewhere, like Syria, as contributing to the extremism. But Erdogan could have gone down in history as a man who helped heal one of Turkey’s most doleful divisions. Instead, he may be the man who helped radicalized another generation, led to more war, and drove the two sides further apart.
Luckily, America would never elect a President like that.