How to Lose Your Country

It’s April 16, and Turkey is voting on a constitutional referendum that may allow its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to drastically increase his powers. It’s the most significant day in the modern history of my country, and I’m watching events unfold on my phone screen in Zagreb, Croatia, where I now live. (Rather than deal with the constant threat of imprisonment or of having my passport confiscated, I chose to get out a few months ago.) In Turkey, the streets are full: People know that this is, in effect, the last chance to prevent a dictatorship.

Already, anyone critical of Erdoğan risks

print Feb/Mar 2017

True Lies

AT THE MOMENT, many Europeans and Americans are still busy asking astonished questions about these new political developments (How could it happen here?, and so on). But I am hoping that this phase of shock and disbelief will be shorter for you than it was for us in Turkey. You need to understand what you are facing, so that you can find your way toward a real political and philosophical conversation. Hating, mocking, underestimating, dismissing Donald Trump—or even attacking him—will not get you anywhere. Trust us: We know.

For instance, many in the US media still seem to think that they can