An open letter to President Erdogan

You shut down the free press and imprisoned scores of journalists. You institutionalized discrimination against Christians and other "undesirable" religions. You hunted down every suspected follower of the Gülen movement in and outside the country, violated every code of human rights, and robbed your countrymen of their dignity. You are choking them; they cannot breathe, they live in fear and uncertainty, and nothing but a bleak future awaits them. You have shattered what's left of Turkey's democracy, and now you stand accused of crimes against humanity.

The education and healthcare systems are crumbling. The country's economy is in tatters: the Turkish lira is at an all-time low, inflation stands at 20 percent, and unemployment has reached 15 percent. All the while, you invested billions of dollars in foreign adventures providing a mixture of economic aid and military assistance to expand your ill-fated influence, building mosques and sending imams to preach your gospel and advance your twisted Islamic agenda.

You do not hide your bold neo-Ottoman foreign policy, trying to project your power from the Persian Gulf to North Africa and the Red Sea, from the Balkans to the Caucasus and Central Asia, regions that were once dominated by the Ottomans. You betrayed your European allies, cozying up to and purchasing an air defense system from the West's foremost adversary-Russia-thus compromising NATO's intelligence-sharing and technology of which paradoxically, Turkey is a member.

You do not respect international law, and blatantly ignore UN resolutions. You are determined to emerge as the leader of the Sunni Muslim world, all while alienating one country after another. Instead of "zero problem with neighbors," you ended up having problems with every neighbor.

As you eye 2023, the hundredth anniversary of the Turkish Republic, waiting breathlessly to preside over the celebration, perhaps you should look back and ponder. Where does Turkey stand today, and what will her fortunes be come tomorrow?

You are leading a country whose star is fading, with a despairing and despondent populace. A country in retreat, with no prospect of recovering as long as you are at the helm of power. You have shattered your people's dreams, robbed them of their freedom, denied them their day in court, degraded their way of life, and rendered the young hopeless and the old despairing, leaving them with little prospect to grow and prosper while stamping on their pride.

Your dream of surpassing the legacy of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is just another one of your illusions. By your blind ambition and disastrous domestic and foreign policy, you have squandered a historic opportunity to make Turkey a respected and influential power. Sadly Mr. Erdogan, when you leave the political scene, it will be with a public mixture of contempt and relief, not with the reverence that was bestowed on Atatürk for a century.

I do wish, Mr. Erdogan, that you wake up to the harsh reality and choose to redeem yourself, by making another U-turn for your country's sake and reversing your disastrous domestic and foreign misdeeds. But then again, at this point, that too may well be an illusion.