The trouble is this encourages a tendency to assume that whoever is has executive power today is the legitimate representative of democracy so long as they once won an election.
Now from what little I know of Turkey, I think Erdogan does have a good democratic case behind him, since he seem popular and won a recent election. But it also really does count against him if he roughshod of the machinery (such as a free press) that makes democracy work.
I don't know enough about Turkey to balance those two things, so I am not willing to stand on any side in this dispute.
The trend is not rising though. He's twice failed to break the numbers required to legally change the constitution, and now even his majority is not very solid. He survives on a steady diet of fairly suspicious shocks, like this coup attempt and a string of terrorist attacks that conveniently targeted his enemies rather than his friends.
He's also played the old "Putin switcheroo" between premiership and presidency to work around constitutional limits, which is why he's trying to strengthen his new role.
The democratic case for Erdogan is the same as for Putin, really; and that says it all.
Now from what little I know of Turkey, I think Erdogan does have a good democratic case behind him, since he seem popular and won a recent election. But it also really does count against him if he roughshod of the machinery (such as a free press) that makes democracy work.
I don't know enough about Turkey to balance those two things, so I am not willing to stand on any side in this dispute.