ANKARA, Turkey — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan has emerged during the past decade as a transformative leader of Turkey,
pledging to make his country a model of Muslim democracy while presidingover an
economic miracle of China-like growth and building a new brand of neo-Ottoman
clout in the Middle East.
All those goals are now under threat.
A convergence of challenges are rocking this nation that straddles two
continents, with the escalating crisis in neighboring Syria leaving the
Islamist leader struggling among foreign allies and within his own electorate to
muster support for a more forceful international response.
Many observers still see Turkey as a model for the budding democracies in the
Muslim world. But thousands from the secular opposition here faced water cannons and tear gas last week during a protest
against what they decry as Erdogan’s increasingly religious and autocratic bent
in a nation where the separation of church and state were once a jealously
guarded nationalist ideal...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-turkey-syria-poses-a-new-test-for-erdogans-authority/2012/11/03/12c5cfce-2445-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html