Europeans thus face an especially thorny predicament. On one hand, they fear being abandoned by a mercurial president to face a revanchist Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the other hand, they dread having to rely even more on Turkey, which has, after all, the largest NATO army in Europe. That choice requires accepting an Erdoğan who has achieved near-total institutional capture at home, eviscerating civil society and the rule of law. The judicial system operates at his behest, prosecuting real and imagined opponents to sideline challengers. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Istanbul mayor and his most formidable rival, has been jailed on politically motivated charges, as have numerous other politicians, civil society figures, and journalists. He is now dismantling the main opposition party, which had pulled comfortably ahead in the polls, on top of the kayyum practice, in which the interior ministry routinely removes Kurdish mayors without cause soon after they win seats in local elections.