Back when he was mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan reportedly said, “Democracy is like a streetcar, you get off once you have reached your stop”.

Erdogan reached his destination a while back. He controls the media and the police. And he recently used a fake coup to seize control over what was left of the system.

But the latest elections serve as a major rebuke to his AKP Islamist party in Turkey’s major cities. Including in Istanbul.

The problem is the economy.

I’ve said before that Turkey is Venezuela with Islamist economics instead of socialism. But it all comes down to the same thing. A fake economy propped up by various gimmicks and scams eventually meets its reckoning. And Turkey is running into its reckoning. An economic war with the Trump administration didn’t help. Neither did Erdogan’s propensity for nepotism in economics. But it was always going to unwind.

Scams always do.

Now voters are starting to turn on Erdogan. 

Does that mean the end of his Islamist regime? Much like Venezuela, it does not. Democracy is like a streetcar. The stop has been reached. And as elections no longer serve Islamist purposes, they too will have to go.