A Crabapple in Istanbul

I wanted to give you a quick heads-up on one of our upcoming longform Prime pieces. Artist and author Molly Crabapple is currently in Istanbul on assignment for TPM reporting a piece on Erdogan’s Turkey, post-Gezi – talking with dissidents, free-speech and Internet activists, football clubers, Imams and more. (She recently wrote about her visit to the Guantanamo Bay prison facility for Vice. TPM’s Catherine Thompson interviewed her about the piece here.) Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan just won a convincing round of victories in local elections around Turkey, despite the increasingly polarized state of Turkish society. Turkey still has elections on schedule and even his staunchest opponents don’t question Erdogan’s recent victory was procedurally legitimate. But with his increasingly authoritarian style of governance, reaching his hand deep into the sinews of Turkish society, is Turkey still a democracy? And where is it headed? Stay turned for Crabapple’s piece appearing soon at TPMPrime.