Erdogan's Hitler Problem

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a Hitler problem. When he was asked last Friday to comment on his strong desire to establish what Turks call an “executive presidency” and how that might affect the “unitary structure” of the Turkish state, Erdogan replied, “There are already examples in the world. You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany.” In the firestorm of criticism that followed, the Turkish presidency sought to clarify Erdogan’s remark. The Guardian quoted an anonymous official stating, “There are good and poor examples of presidential systems and the important thing is to put checks and balances in place…Nazi Germany, lacking proper institutional arrangements, was obviously one of the most disgraceful examples in history.” The same official also accused the president’s opponents of purposefully distorting his remarks. Fair enough, but one has to wonder why Nazi Germany was the first example Erdogan could think of.