Just a decade ago, Ece Temelkuran was recognized as the most-read political columnist in Turkey, then a thriving secular democracy. Today, she no longer lives in Turkey and her homeland is on the knife’s edge of dictatorship under the rule of President Erdogan. Temelkuran, author of the new book How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, spoke with Tina about what other challenged democracies can learn from the loss of liberty in Turkey and how to recognize the common playbook in the rise of many populist leaders. She says neither anger nor laughter are shelters in the storm of authoritarianism and that lies have become permissible because we have lost all sense of shame.
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