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Turkey gained its 13th president today, May 29, the day of the 570th anniversary of the Ottoman Empire. In the second round of the presidential election, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan scored a hard-fought victory over his opponent Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, with just over 52 percent. A similar scenario of Erdoğan’s success was noted in expert assessments. Thus, the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) extended his rule for another five years, which is a historical record for republican Turkey in terms of uninterrupted rule for a quarter of a century. Erdoğan will apparently equal Sultan Osman Ghazi in terms of his period…

Readers of previous articles by the present writer will know that the present author has a special interest in defectors from North Korea. As a result of their efforts a number of extravagant myths have been spread for propaganda purposes, largely because they tend to be from an upper middle-class background in North Korea, and in order to be able to afford an equivalent standard of living in the South they need to earn money by selling alarming stories. One of the few exceptions to this rule was Thae Yong-ho, who has been able to attain a status and influence no less than those which had before…

The 49.51% vs 44.88% distribution after the first stage of the presidential election maintains Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s apparent prospects of triumph over his rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Perhaps the incumbent president of Turkey could have snatched the victory on May 14, too, for the authorities could have counted 0.49% of the votes differently (for instance, in terms of invalid ballots). But Erdoğan, an experienced politician, decided not to test the reaction of his internal and external opponents, to show himself as a supporter of “mature democracy”…