Getting off the train

FOR 400 YEARS, says a founding myth common to Turkic peoples from China to the Aegean sea, forebears of the Turks were trapped in the rocky valley of Ergenekon. But one day an ingenious blacksmith learned to melt stone, and a grey she-wolf appeared to lead the tribe from its mountain fastness into the rich plains. Similarly, Kemal Ataturk has for generations been depicted in Turkish schools as a hero who after the first world war rallied a beaten people, repulsed a swarm of invaders and forged a strong new nation. In some ways the story of the rise of the Justice and Development party echoes those tales, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented as leading Turkey from a dark era of Kemalist faithlessness into a bright Islamic future.

But now that the party has risen, the story is getting darker. Early in his career Mr Erdogan made a telling remark he was later to regret. Democracy is like a train, he said; you get off once you have reached your destination. Now many of his party’s critics fear that Turkey’s president may be getting close to that goal.