Wanna-be-Caliph Erdogan's dreams are falling apart

At first, there were doubts about Turkey ever being able to join the EU, but now that the EU itself is failing apart and the likelihood of a civil war in Turkey, that item is no longer on the agenda ... in fact it's dead, totally dead.  Erdogan, the man who helped fuel the civil war in Syria from its very inception, is now faced with a similar fate in his own country.  Karma, dear folks.  It gets you when you least expect it to.

Semih Idiz writing at AlMonitor
Erdogan continues to stir the pot in Turkey
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is continuing to make his less-than-democratic ambitions clear, and in doing so increasing social tensions in a Turkey already torn asunder along ethnic and ideological lines, with the animosity between Turks and Kurds, and Islamists and secularists, increasing daily.

The rekindled war with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which broke out shortly after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in the June 7 general elections, and the daily killing of soldiers and policemen by the PKK are pouring fuel on a potentially explosive brew that promises little other than political chaos for the country.

Opposition politicians and analysts are united in their belief that Erdogan is trying to manipulate rising social tensions resulting from daily attacks by the PKK to the AKP’s benefit, in the hope that the electorate will be scared into returning the party to power on its own Nov. 1 for the sake of stability in the country. That is when early elections are due to be held after the AKP’s failure to form a coalition government with any of the opposition parties in parliament following the June elections.

Erdogan’s remarks show he has little time to spare for the political correctness required of him as a president. Constitutionally, the president, as the head of state, has to remain above party politics. Erdogan refused to do so in the lead-up to the June elections and campaigned actively for the AKP, calling on the electorate to return the party to power with 400 deputies so that it can write a new constitution for what he refers to as “New Turkey.”

Erdogan and his supporters have made no secret that the priority project for that Turkey will be to change the current parliamentary system into an executive presidential one where the president, or rather the “leader,” will be penned in with as few constitutional restrictions as possible. Erdogan continues to display few qualms about openly reflecting his desire to become Turkey’s supreme leader and is relying on the AKP, which he led until being elected president in August 2014, for this. He does not appear perturbed that his interference in the political domain is agitating an already tense country.

During a joint interview the night of Sept. 6 with ATV and A Haber — both pro-government channels that act as his mouthpieces — Erdogan said that if the electorate had given a certain party the required 400 deputies, the troubles Turkey is experiencing today would not have come about. He was speaking shortly after news broke.........