Erdogan and the reinvention of the Turkish presidency

Sunday saw Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan win election to the Turkish presidency. The outcome was expected, the only real question had been whether Erdogan would require a second round to defeat his main opponent Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu. The election marks the closing of a remarkable 14 months in which Erdogan has faced liberal protests, corruption allegations, a bitter fallout with his former allies in the Gülenist movement, and a string of regional foreign policy reversals. His election has reaffirmed his status as the dominant force in Turkish politics. Nevertheless, his ambition to transform the presidency into a powerful executive remains a significant and unpredictable gamble.