“If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung on the other side.” —Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
From Wikipedia:
Political scientists no longer consider Turkey as a fully fledged democracy, citing the lack of free and fair elections, purges and jailing of opponents, curtailed press freedom, and Erdoğan’s efforts to broadening his executive powers and minimize his executive accountability…
A $100 billion corruption scandal in 2013 led to the arrests of Erdoğan’s close allies, and incriminated Erdoğan. His government has since come under fire for alleged human rights violations and crackdown on press and social media, having blocked access to Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on numerous occasions.
Erdoğan’s government lifted the bans when directed by court orders, but later reimposed them. In 2016, Turkey under Erdoğan began a crackdown on freedom of the press; in 2016 and 2017, more journalists have been incarcerated in Turkey than in any other country.
He was re-elected in the 2018 general election and assumed the role of Executive President and became both the head of state and head of government.
My take: A president who defies inflation, picks a fight with the EU, and makes his inexperienced son-in-law finance minister is probably headed for trouble. The staged execution of a few iPhones will be the least of it.
Turkey targets iPhone after Trump doubles tariffs.
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