comment by
Tomas Avenarius
The nice thing about the Turkish president is his predictability: he always plays at risk in foreign policy. What is less pleasant is that you never know what exactly Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be up to in the near future – he is a “loose cannon”, a security risk. He recently wanted to throw ten ambassadors out of the country, they had insisted on the rule of law when dealing with a well-known opposition figure. The diplomats are still in Turkey: Erdoğan’s foreign politicians, who were appalled by the president’s solo effort, and the diplomats of the states who were disciplined then made a declaration that allowed both sides to save face. But even though he had to back down, Erdoğan was seen as a muscle man even by his supporters. What counted as success for him was what his Western partners saw as the opposite of a confidence-building measure.