There's a new "ism" to add to the pantheon of Putinism, Chavezism, Kemalism (after Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk) and others. Now we have Tayyipism.
One way to look at parliamentary elections that are to take place here in Turkey on June 7 is as an attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate the kind of populist, ideologically founded personal rule that such "isms" imply. It's what his party's campaign posters mean when they say "New Turkey, New Power."
This new Turkey is a revamped version of Ataturk's Republic. It is to be more religious, more conservative, more rooted in the Middle East and less bound to the West. It will be, above all, guided by a new and charismatic founding father, who rules less in the style of a European prime minister (Hungary's Viktor Orban excepted), and more in that of a populist Eastern strongman. This new Turkey has, in part, already arrived, and a substantial segment of the population is enthusiastic.