All despots possess “great political authority”, exercised by ruthlessly suppressing all opposition and clinging to dogmatic proclamations as to their “absolute” right to rule, rather than govern.
Erdogan is probably not as doctrinaire as Stalin, but he is moving up in the rankings pretty fast. In fact, the failure of the ISIS to establish a caliphate makes his own ambitions to restore the Ottoman Empire that much more feasible, in his calculation.
Which puts Erdogan at loggerheads with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is exercising its expansionist powers at Turkey’a very borders.
> All despots possess “great political authority”
I was thinking the same thing about the phrase - it can sound like a compliment but means nothing. And, if Obama had said it to Erdogan, the media would have praised him for his abilities at “diplomacy” - the smartest man in the world knows exactly what to say to every foreign leader. But they’d call for impeachment if the undiplomatic Trump said the same thing to Erdogan.