Erdogan’s Empire

Political scientist Soner Cagaptay, a fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute, details the policies of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Though Erdoğan plays to populist prejudices and opposes religious freedom, Cagaptay says he hasn’t entirely dismantled Turkey’s democracy. Moreover, the author shows how Erdoğan has presided over an economic boom and countered Bashar al-Assad’s bloody practices in Syria.

Reviewers appreciated the complexity of Cagaptay’s approach and his attempts to explain Turkey to those who know little about it. The Washington Post, for example, wrote, “Americans, Israelis and Europeans may not like the headstrong, ruthless Erdoğan, but after reading Cagaptay’s book, they’ll at least understand him.”  Ozdem Sanberk, former undersecretary at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, called this book a “must-read for citizens around the globe.”