For more than a decade, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - the present Turkish President - has been West’s favourite Muslim son. A leader that could work as an example, a role model and a strong breakwater to all kind of Muslim radicalism in Middle East and South East Asia. That’s how the West wanted him to be. So blinded by their own wishes, wants and denials they didn’t see that Erdoğan was a psychotic paranoid authoritarian, totally corrupted by power who manipulated everybody. And by everybody I don’t mean just the west but everybody including the radical Muslims of ISIL.

The amazing thing about Erdoğan is that while the Europeans were and still are, till very recently, victims of his manipulations, it was the Americans who saw first his real face and a very critical moment for them. It was when Erdoğan refused to help the Americans in their invasion to Iraq and surprisingly when Saddam fell defeated, the Turks appeared as victors ready for the looting. That made George W. Bush’s administration angry and their “friendly” attitude towards Turkey for the rest of the time was only due to keep appearances and of course for geopolitical reasons since Turkey remains an accountable force in the area. Obama continued Bush’s policy with Turkey: keep Erdoğan in a safe distance and doubt anything he says.

The Europeans from the other played a very strange and schizophrenic game with Turkey. While Turkey had started negotiations with EU for a membership, the EU leadership often used public opinion to delay talks or agreements. The 2005 French referendum for the European Constitution is the best example when 55% voted against with one and only excuse, they didn’t want Turkey as a full member state in the EU. Furthermore while it has never happened with any other candidate country, most EU member states demand to have an internal referendum before fully accepting Turkey in EU. But the same time the Europeans were too keen to support politically Erdoğan everywhere, invest financially in Turkey in the name of Erdoğan with Germany France and Holland majoring in those investment and finally keeping a “neutral” distance with Turkey’s conflicts first with the Kurds and then with another EU member (which actually made it more painful) with Cyprus. In both these cases the European “neutral” attitude is actually in conflict with the European principals since Erdoğan’s hostility against the Kurds is on the limits of a genocide and in Cyprus, Turkey occupies part of the independent and full EU member state as a result of an invasion not much different from Saddam’s to Kuwait. Furthermore Europe has been fully aware of Erdoğan’s dictatorial turn the last five years at least, has been fully aware of the imprisonments, tortures, murders plus Erdoğan’s connection with ISIL’s oil but still they kept treating him as a …partner, ally and friend.

The peak of Erdoğan’s manipulations came recently with the waves of the refugees from Syria. Erdoğan was literally bribed to control these refugees’ waves and stop them in the Turkish boarders creating for the corrupted dictator one more element for anew blackmail. Pay me, otherwise I open my boarders and overflow Europe with refugees. Plus and this is another sign of who really Erdoğan is, he did his blackmail warning that some of those refugees he will let cross to Europe might be …terrorists. And unfortunately Europe fell for that.

The same time Europe and America know that Erdoğan has made billions through ISIL as he did before with Saddam, helping them illegally to sell oil abroad. Erdoğan’s son has been laundering money abroad, especially in Italy, for decades and that has not been a secret, tens of articles have been written about it and the Italian government actually had an investigation against Erdoğan’s son until he left Italy never to return back, a few years ago.

Psychotic and megalomaniac Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thinks that he is the reincarnation of some kind of a mythic Sultan, ruler of a never-existing empire that expanded to three continents. And he demands it back with the argument that this not-ever-existing Turkish empire is rightfully his. At the moment he has gone as far as to dismiss international treaties signed from Turkey in the past calling them an international conspiracy against Turkey and the people who signed them traitors of the Turkish ideals. He has called the Turkish immigrants in Europe to have …more children so eventually they can overflow Europe, he supports financially Turkish minority parties and mainstream party candidates all around Europe, he works with Turkish satellite parties and politicians all around South East Asia and rumours have it that he funds similar movements in Africa. He acts aggressively to his neighbours and he has never hidden his intentions against the Iraqi Kurds and Cyprus. But before getting there he needs one thing: to be “legally” enthroned as a dictator. And here comes the April 16th referendum.

The referendum is about changing the Turkish constitution with 18 amendments. The amendments include the introduction of an executive presidency that would replace the existing parliamentary system of government, the abolition of the Office of the Prime Minister, the raising of the number of seats in Parliament from 550 to 600 and changes in the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors. In simple words they abolish parliamentary democracy and give absolute power, including legislative and judicial power to one man: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The separation of power (legislate – judicial – executive) is a fundamental principal for democracy. On the contrary the assemblage of all powers by one person is a fundamental characteristic of a dictator. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan most likely will win the referendum but a majority of a 50.5% might give him the victory but it will not legitimize him in the eyes of his opposition and the international community. He need at least a 75-80% so he can argue that …he has the support of the people. To do so he needs even the Turks who live abroad and count in millions especially in Europe. And to get that he invests in the European xenophobia and the Turkish paranoia that everybody hates them. That why all his latest attacks to Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark and now Norway. It is just one more manoeuvre of a psychotic manipulator. But you see, as I wrote before Europe has constantly fall for his manipulations and in the end it seems that they always forget. Especially after Erdoğan reminds them what he holds inside his boarders as he did again recently and after the hit in London.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a very dangerous man. Using the coup against him the same way Hitler used the Reichstag fire in 1933 he has imprisoned, tortured and perhaps murdered all his opposition turning Turkey into a one-party-governing, one-man-ruling country. He is a man without ethical barriers and his religious believes are obviously nothing more than a veil to blind his compatriots while he piles the profits of his corruption into Italian, Swiss and who knows where else, banks. A psychotic paranoid who doesn’t give a damn for human lives as long as he can be the dominator of absolute power and perhaps time has come for Europe and the rest of the world to start dealing with him the same way they deal with al-Assad, Kim Jong-un, Robert Mugabe or Omar Al-Bashir.

The sad thing about the whole story – and on general the Turkish history - is the fact that the Turkish people are like cursed never to see peace and freedom. Never to live in a democracy.