This past weekend¡¯s election results in Turkey were astonishing, celebrated by hundreds of thousands of Turks as a victory for secularism and by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as a revival of liberal democracy that offers hope not just to his country, but across the world.
Eventually, perhaps. This marks the beginning of a fight by opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not its triumph.
Let¡¯s start with the reasons for hope, because for anyone who has believed in the extraordinary promise of a democratic and open Turkey, the last decade has been unremittingly dark. What this weekend¡¯s municipal elections have proved is that even for the most successful populist leaders, the power of identity politics can be insufficient if they destroy the economy.
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