Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Jen Rubin on Turkey’s Authoritarian Rise and Growing Opposition

Mass protests have erupted across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a leading opposition figure expected to be named a presidential candidate. Aslı Aydıntaşbaş lays out President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s populist playbook—and its domestic parallels.

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is a visiting fellow at Brookings and a senior associate fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Before her career in foreign policy, Aydıntaşbaş served as a journalist in Turkey, chronicling its domestic evolution and foreign policy amid political unrest.