It’s the reality (stupid)!

 
 
No one likes a know-it-all, and in this case we even hate ourselves for getting it spot on. The subject was the mounting wave of criticism Turkey and its president now face in the international press. There are two reasons why this should be the case, according to P24’s regular contributor, Washington-based Ömer Taşpınar. The first is that Ankara is becoming an increasingly unreliable ally in the Middle East, acting from not just a difference of opinion and national interest but out of a real resentment against the West. The second is that President Erdogan is becoming increasingly authoritarian and is systematically undermining Turkey’s democratic institutions. 
 
The New York Times made the point with the front-page photo on its Sunday edition of the Turkey’s new presidential palace, a 1,000 room leviathan straight out of Ceaușescu’s casebook or (even worse) a parody by Sasha Baron Cohen. It was a $350 million extravagance to go with a new $200 million jet. Erdogan “has pulled a Putin,” wrote the Times.
 
Taşpınar predicted that the president would not take such adverse publicity lying down, that he would come out of his corner fighting, and that he would be looking for someone else to blame.
 
“In the face of the criticism in the world press, Erdogan will revert to the formula he knows so well. He will reject those criticisms categorically, adopt a discourse of plots and conspiracies concocted to affect how Turkey is perceived, and he will resurrect the much cherished rhetoric how much he is a victim.”
 
It didn’t take long for these words to come true. The very next day, while addressing a university audience Monday, the president accused the international media of conducting“psychological warfare” against Turkey— and with the complicity of home grown publications “Each day, some international newspapers come up and conduct a perception operation,” he said at Istanbul’s Bezmialem University on 3 November.
 
The president may calculate that this pugnacious stand will only increase his domestic popularity. He is a politician who draws his strength from conflict. Standing up to Uncle Sam and pouring scorn on the foreign press is a tactic that he does well. It will also make Turkish press less free to speak its own mind lest it be accused of being a collaborator with foreign friends.
 
 As Turkey's challenges have magnified — fighting on its border with Syria, strained relations with its NATO allies, pressure on the economy — Mr. Erdoğan's authority has only grown stronger," writes the New York Times.
 
In the long term, however, this strategy will only isolate Turkey from its friends. It will also set back the cause of a country that rules itself through democratic discourse. At the end of the day, even a fool can see that it is not the perception of Turkey that needs to change but the reality.