With 51.69% of the popular vote, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister and leader of the National Unity Party (UBP), was elected the 5th President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Turkish Cyprus or TRNC) on 18 October 2020. Unlike Mustafa Akıncı’s landslide victory in the 2015 run-off ballot against incumbent Derviş Eroğlu, 2020’s second round was a nail-biter.

The Turkey we once knew no longer exists. Despite NATO objections and US warnings, Ankara acquired the advanced S-400 anti-aircraft system from Russia.

On March 10, 2019, when Turkey was on the verge of local elections, I finalized the below piece as “There's a fairly large elephant in the room for upcoming local elections, called "Kurdish votes," whoever asks for success must raise the stakes.”

Turkey is on the verge of local elections with multiple rallies a day, polarization, rumors, strong - words of leaders and candidates, but above all, with a fairly large elephant in the room.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences are far from over, there are a number of key lessons that must be urgently drawn upon.

Conventional wisdom now holds that the era of globalisation has ended, and that the world post the Corona virus will see the return of the strong state.