I've for a while considered Tayyip Erdogan the world's most talented active politician. His AKP is leading Turkey, in a way that could not have been predicted before his electoral success toward being a popularly accountable civilian-led country.
I read that his party has not gotten enough votes to push though constitutional changes that it is contemplating, but Erdogan is someone I trust will find a way to make the changes he feels are necessary and to draw enough popular support to do so.
Post Erdogan Turkish politicians though, will find themselves in a very different environment from his. Erdogan has no significant opposition from the more Islamist side of the political spectrum so he is free to forge positions closer to the median viewpoint in his society than his pro-American military secularist predecessors. There is no serious political criticism of his own ties to Israel and the United States.
Erdogan is putting in place a system where that will not always be the case. His successor, to become his successor will have to face opposition from further Islamist factions and resolve opposition in a way compatible with most Turkish voters. That is a great thing for the people of Turkey and for the principle of accountable government.
More important than Egypt's first president and parliament is the question of what kind of political system will form for future elections. If Egypt follows Turkey's lead, even if Egypt's first post-military leadership is not fully representative of the sensibilities of the Egyptian people, then just by creating a system where political power it the result of a contest to match positions with the sensibilities of the Egyptian people, Egypt will be delivering a devastating blow to the American/Zionist Raj or the US Middle East colonial structure that currently includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Kuwait and others.
That's why I think Egypt's upcoming elections are the most, and I'm even tempted to say the only strategically important predictable upcoming event in the Middle East.
But today, to the talented Erdogan and to the people of Turkey who are steadily regaining accountability from the government that represents them, again I send a strong wish of congratulations.
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