Erdogan Rising: How the Turkish president became ‘the most practised populist in the world’

A new book on how Erdogan led a democracy on the fringe of Europe into dictatorship paints a vivid portrait of a man who has dominated the political scene in his country, Kim Sengupta writes

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued to win elections despite a number of crises (AP)

Paramount is the need to secure human rights. The form of rule should be such that the citizen does not have to fear the state, but gives it direction and confidently participates in its administration.”

Thus spake Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, who, it is often said, sees himself as the new Ottoman Sultan, a ruler involved in a struggle against Saudi Arabia for the leadership of the Sunni world, and whose government continues to detain tens of thousands of people, including lawyers, judges, journalists, police and military officers. Even now, three years after the failed coup blamed on Fethullah Gulen (which the cleric denies), the Turkish state has announced it is hunting down fresh suspects.

In addition to those imprisoned, thousands more have lost their jobs; around a thousand companies, supposedly linked to the cleric exiled in Pennsylvania, worth an estimated $11bn (£8.9m) have been seized, and dozens of media outlets have been shut down.