Financial Times: President Erdoğan responds to pressure

(Financial Times, London, 28 April 2018) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has brought forward by a year and a half elections he intends will crown his quest for one-man rule in Turkey. One reason for the snap early election is that Turkey’s overheating economy is vulnerable. The president needs to provide jobs and services to his base. Despite his xenophobic tub-thumping and absolute intolerance of dissent, Mr Erdogan does respond to pressure and has released some journalists. The German government, although courting Ankara’s help in holding back the flood of Syrian refugees, lost patience with what it saw as hostage-taking. It ordered a travel advisory steering German tourists away from Turkey, a review of export credit guarantees for German companies trading with Turkey, and a freeze on defence contracts.