Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This article in leading Turkish news source is a recommended read. Check it out!

via President Erdoğan says EU cannot give ‘democracy lesson’ to Turkey – POLITICS – Hurryat.

To me, Turkey’s President seems seriously rattled. I’m not surprised with the number of balls that he has in the air at any one time. Whilst the mainstream Western media has focused on Russia’s economic problems recently, a number of commentators have picked up that Turkey is also caught in the geo-political fall-out.

This year Turkey’s growth has stumbled. It is desperately dependent upon Western multi-national investment in Turkey – this provides jobs and keeps the educated young people in Turkey from focusing upon other political challenges.

I predict that multi-national will increasingly factor in political risk ahead of investment decisions in Turkey. This will increase the pressure on President Erdoğan.

This leads me to an interesting open question:

Will Turkey’s President Erdoğan avoid the mistakes of Russia’s President Putin?

Thoughts?