( Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)Ahead of local elections throughout his country last weekend, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resorted to his usual tactics. And he stirred angry nationalism from city to city in a bid to distract voters frustrated by the country’s faltering economy. The loss of Istanbul “would be an especially harsh blow to the president,” wrote The Washington Post’s Kareem Fahim. But in Turkey’s system, they select the heads of the country’s 81 provinces and the cities and towns within them. Crackdowns and purges flushed out potential opponents within Turkey’s judiciary and state bureaucracy, while squeezing the country’s civil society and news outlets.

Source: Washington Post April 03, 2019 04:52 UTC