Erdoğan seizes geopolitical moment to snuff out democratic opposition

“[U.S. President Donald] Trump’s anti-democratic actions at home have fueled a global climate where autocrats elsewhere feel empowered to further crush dissent,” she said.

Trump, who regularly calls for his political opponents to be locked up, is hardly likely to lecture Erdoğan, publicly or privately, over İmamoğlu’s incarceration. And in an interview with the MAGA-loyal Tucker Carlson last week, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff described a recent phone conversation between the two leaders as “great” and “transformational.”

Admittedly, that was before İmamoğlu’s arrest, but the U.S. president has hardly taken pause himself, continuously striking at political foes since his inauguration. Visiting the U.S. Justice Department last week, he called his adversaries “scum,” “savages” and “Marxists,” before adding they’re “deranged” and “thugs” for good measure. It’s all in keeping with the vow of retribution he took at his first official campaign rally in Texas.

So, of course, Erdoğan would harbor no worries as to Trump’s disapproval. The two have lavished priase on each other for years, and the Turkish leader has said he supports his American counterpart’s peace initiative in Ukraine — no doubt music to Trump’s ears.

Erdoğan isn’t alone among the once embattled autocrats — and would-be autocrats — sniffing the change in the geopolitical air, and reckoning they’re on the cusp of a new era, able to erase the rules and norms of old and replace them with ones more to their liking. It’s influencing their behavior as they look to each other for inspiration and new ideas for running their respective countries — whether it be weaponizing policies affecting sexual minorities, scapegoating migrants, sharpening attacks on independent media, transforming public broadcasters into government mouthpieces or just closing them down.

And seemingly, they’re ready to giving each other a helping hand too. As Turkish authorities banned public gatherings and restricted public access to social media, Trump’s “best buddy” Elon Musk suspended Turkish opposition accounts on his platform.