Erdoğan

Not so long ago, Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan was seen by the West as a beacon of hope, and Turkey's accession to the EU was almost a done deal. But then came the turning point. But was it a turning point at all? Or were Erdoğan's democratic appearances just a sham? Can the behaviour of autocratic rulers - like Putin these days - be calculated at all? In their meticulously researched biography, the journalist Can Dündar and the illustrator Mohamed Anwar, both regime critics who had to leave their home country, trace Erdoǧan's path from poor circumstances to the pinnacle of power and illuminate the stages of his life that shaped him religiously, politically and as a person. A portrait of a man who knew early on where he wanted to go and who would do anything to achieve his goals emerges ever more clearly. The 300-page biography not only tells the story of a despot, but is also an insightful contribution to the understanding of political Islam.