The Turkey tutorial to fear

Turkey is sinking ever deeper into trouble at home and abroad.

The dangers it faces concern not only its own people, its social cohesion and territorial integrity, but also provide lessons for the rest of the world.

The first concerns the ease with which an elected government can slide into authoritarianism when it undermines institutions; the second is how quickly citizens can be divided under the influence of nationalism, populism and political cynicism; the third concerns the perils of subjugating foreign policy to domestic needs.

Authoritarianism was always part of Turkish political life. In Recep Tayyip Erdogan's effort to become omnipotent through a change of constitution, however, his excesses (which, we must stress, were tempered in his clashes with a "deep state" that repeatedly tried to destroy him), have driven the country into the current crisis.