ANKARA: Turkey’s once all-powerful prime minister is battling problems both domestic and international that threaten to diminish his popularity ahead of an election cycle next year, analysts say.

With three straight election wins under his belt, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics for 11 years and enjoyed a free hand in crafting government policy.

But the tough-talking leader known as “the Sultan” who took office promising bold reforms has become an increasingly polarising figure in Turkey, and cracks are emerging in his government ahead of local polls in March.

“Since he took office, the prime minister has gradually shifted from pragmatist tendencies to ideological ones, from team work to personal decisions, from democracy to authoritarianism, from thought-out policies to impulsive ones,” Ilter Turan, professor at Istanbul’s private Bilgi University, said.

Erdogan’s controversial policies have exposed deep fault lines within his Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the government has lost support over its heavy-handed response to mass street protests that rocked the country in June.

He has irritated friends abroad with his defiant stance on regional crises, while the EU has only just resumed accession talks after a three-year freeze.

On the economic front, growth has slowed sharply and the Turkish lira has taken a tumble.

Erdogan’s stature also took a knock when Turkey failed in its bid to host the 2020 Olympics and lost out to Dubai for the World Expo the same year.

At home, Erdogan is on the verge of losing one of his strongest allies over a bitter education dispute that has gripped the domestic political scene for several weeks.

MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE: The feud with influential Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives in US exile, stems from government plans to close down a network of private schools run by Gulen’s religious movement that are seen by the populist Erdogan as giving an unfair advantage to well-off students.

One analyst speculated that Erdogan would “make the mistake of his life” if he dared to challenge the Gulen movement, which wields considerable influence in the state apparatus.

Erdogan faced another confrontation with long-time ally Bulent Arinc, the deputy prime minister and an AKP co-founder, over his criticism of mixed-sex student accommodation.

The former Islamic firebrand has also alienated many middle-class professionals and secular modernists over what they see as a “hidden Islamist agenda” in their predominantly Muslim but staunchly secular country.

But Erdogan himself insisted Friday that his government remained as strong as ever.

“We, as brothers, will add a new and meaningful victory to our political history,” he told a boisterous AKP meeting.

Latest opinion polls say the AKP is likely to emerge the clear winner in the muncipal and legislative lls.—AFP