Erdoğan spells it out once again

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is not holding back in terms of signaling what kind of political system he wants for Turkey with him at the helm. He is also continues to mix apples and oranges, or as some may say, tomatoes and potatoes, in doing so.

His remarks to the Kanal 7 network on Sunday provide a fine example. Indicating that “developed countries are run under presidential or semi-presidential systems,” Erdoğan pointed to the United States, Russia and China as examples.

“The need for such a system in order to take serial decisions is apparent. If you can’t break the bureaucratic oligarchy, you will face difficulties in governing. Our path is being cut by simple obstacles. This applies to the judiciary and the executive. Our friends in the Cabinet can’t get subordinates to follow orders.”

Erdoğan’s political ambitions and his tactics in trying to fulfill these are there to see in these remarks. The first thing to notice is that he ranks Russia and China on par with the U.S. in terms of “development.” His criteria here is clearly economic, because politically speaking if the gauge is democracy, Russia and China are in a totally different class to the U.S., and not even comparable with each other.

This applies to the two countries in relation to the U.S. – and each other – in terms of standard of living and per capital income, too, of course, but we will merely dwell on the political aspect here. Erdoğan also mixes tomatoes and potatoes when he equates the U.S. presidential system with Russia and China’s “leadership” systems.

Leaders in those countries – even if they have gone through the motions of being elected – wield...