Erdogan's Delusions and India's Security Concerns

While advertising itself as a modern Islamic power, Ankara under President Erdoğan funds radical voices and ideas. This duplicity must be thoroughly exposed

- Akash Kumar Singh Abhishek Singhvi

Turkey, once embodying Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secular, modern vision, now stumbles under the iron-fisted whims of a man chasing the ghosts of the past. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has gone from reformer to radical, from statesman to strongman. His current avatar? A self-styled Caliph of the 21st century, broadcasting delusions of grandeur across the Muslim world.

Let us not sugar-coat it; this is not religious revivalism. It is a well-rehearsed, high-budget cosplay of the Ottoman Empire, starring Erdoğan as the lone ranger of the Ummah. His bromance with Pakistan and hostility toward India are not products of ideology but ambition. He treats it as an Influence Olympics and he is doing whatever it takes to win gold.

Cloaked in nostalgia and supercharged by social media, Erdoğan's neo-Ottoman propaganda seeks to radicalize young minds from Kashmir to Kerala. His tactics are straight from the dictator's playbook—mask authoritarianism with messianic rhetoric, fund proxies, push propaganda, and exploit identity fault lines. And India, one of the most diverse nations and an exemplar of pluralism, must level up.