The Hillary effect

Would it be right to predict the outcome of the Nov. 8 presidential elections in the United States? If the outcome would have a serious impact on our everyday lives as well as on the domestic Turkish political scene and the international conjecture, why not? Probably to Turkey's dismay, Democrat Party candidate Hillary Clinton will climb the ladder to the U.S. presidential seat with a margin of 6 to 7 percentage points. Could there be a Republican Donald Trump surprise? Very unlikely.

Turkey would very much like to see Trump as president, purely for opportunistic reasons. Very much like the case with Russia, it is a fact that there is a very high rate of compatibility, bordering indeed on histocompatibility, between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and leaders who have "I did it my way" style.

Whoever is elected president in the upcoming elections there will be little change in the U.S.-Turkey relations. Potential crises in three areas will continue to impact relations irrespective of who is elected. One problem, perhaps the most important one, will continue to be the issue of freedom of expression, press freedom, independence of the judiciary and issues pertaining to the unfortunate situation of the separation of powers in Turkey. 

Although there was a relative decline compared to September, when the number of journalists imprisoned increased to as high as 205, as of mid-October, it is very unfortunate that there are still 195 journalists behind bars. A number of journalists have fled the country to escape persecution. Over 10,000 journalists have been left jobless, including some 3,500 of our colleagues rendered unemployed because of the operations launched against the Fethullah Gülen Islamist fraternity declared as a terrorist...