Revived Ottoman Empire? Erdogan reminds Turks of old empire, with his eye on new powers
ANKARA, Turkey — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has started talking
about Turkey’s borders, hinting they should be shifted outward a bit. In
Syria and Iraq, his army is involved in wars over territory once ruled
from Istanbul. Maps of a Greater Turkey have circulated.
That has led to speculation that Erdogan, fresh from surviving an
attempted coup, wants to crown his 14-year rule in Turkey by annexing
chunks of its neighbors. But analysts see a more mundane domestic
calculation behind the rhetoric: They say the president is really trying
to expand his own powers, not his country’s frontiers.