In November of 2002 I had the opportunity to observe, for a few days, the first election campaign of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I travelled in the bus that transported him from city to city. Wherever we would arrive it was the same scene. The whole town would be gathered at the square. Poor people, women in headscarves, huge crowds. Everywhere we would find the same passion, tears, the same overwhelming emotion. In the smallest town, Erdoğan conducted an electricity the likes of which I had not seen since the gatherings of Karamanlis in Aristotelous square in '74 or those of Andrea Papandreou in '81, at Syntagma square. Turkey, the deeply religious, poor Turkey, still hesitant and scared, was...
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