Very unfortunate.

Erdogan looks to reestablish the influence lost on WW1, he uses Islam as a way to legitimate a reedict of otoman empire.
Remember that the Otoman sultain was not only a political leader, but also the Califa (religious head) of Islam.
The same thing that Putin is doing in Russia, even restoring and promoting the orthodox church.

That goes in the opposite way of Kemal Ataturk's idea of the turkish republic.

Erdogan was always going to be an issue, he's a shifty guy. Old fashioned, power hungry, incapable of taking criticism, probably a sociopath.

Top tip- Never trust anyone with a mustache.

Islamist always complaint about rights, in an Islamic Sharia country you have no rights as a non Islamist!!!

Turkey, the US, my ancestral Poland and elsewhere — cynical politicians and religious institutions whipping up or hijacking reactionary populist sentiment to implement the worst social and political programs.

Yes, I see this but I'm equally afraid that America might plunge into religious intolerance. Also, Trump lets this go on because he gets money from the Trump Towers that Turkey has.

writings been on the wall for quite a while and trumps doing nothing to slow it down because you know . . . Trump Istanbul

Unfortunately the same thing is happening here with the very-well organized efforts of the rich, aligned with intolerant Christians. Countries don't dumb down overnight. There was a time the Muslim world led in science and mathematics. People will one day look and say there was a time America reigned supreme. A small decline here, a small decline there, just a percent or two over 20, 30, 40, 50 years and you're done. The magic of compounding applied to culture. Except the growth is negative.

With the lefties ranting about Islamophobia, I don't think anyone will consider this as a problem.

I was stationed in Turkey years ago and even then it was mostly a Moslem country. I have friends who were Syrian Orthodox and they told me of what they called 'closet conversions' by the Moslem majority to the other groups. They moved to Germany. At one time their eldest daughter opened a Turkish grocery store and a group of Moslems set it on fire so even when people move to another country the religious extremism goes along. One big problem is that most of the really sever violence in the world is between Shia and Suni Moslems. I suspect it will be the same between Protestants and Catholics and even between the different Protestant sects. No one wins with religion!

The people voted for Erdogan to have the power of the president and prime minister combined. Erdogan also encourages Turks living abroad to have more babies than Europeans. Journalists are often jailed in Turkey for speaking out against Erdogan and he holds over Europe’s head over three million migrants

Just what the world needs, another neo nazi theocracy, based on the nonsensical pleasing of an all powerful figment of the imagination of bronze age gullible fools

And they are turning more toward the Putin sphere of influence.