Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses supporters following his victory in Turkey’s Presidential runoff, Presidential Palace, Ankara, May 29, 2023 (Umit Bektas/Reuters)


I joined Australia’s ABC on Monday to analyze the re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — and Turkey’s immediate domestic problems that he faces even as he presents himself as an international strongman.

Watch Discussion from 9:11

I chat with host Beverley O’Connor about Erdoğan’s tactics, including control of almost all Turkish media and detention of journalists and activists.

Then I outline Turkey’s precarious economic position, with an inflation rate that reached 85% at the end of 2022 and a lira that has lost 60% in two years.

Erdoğan will continue to pose as a broker of international conflicts, will try to use leverage such as his blocking of Sweden’s entry into NATO, and will pursue his campaign against Kurds in both Turkey and Syria.

But given he won with just 52% of the vote, can he use these to escape further economic problems and the allegations of corruption and cronyism that have marked his rule?

One solution would have been to go to the economic specialists and deal with Turkey’s long-term issues.

But Erdoğan has sidelined a lot of that community while putting his cronies into key economic positions, as the serious issue of corruption — some of it tied to Erdoğan and his family — continues.