Sultan at bay

DO NOT underestimate the importance of Turkey to the West. In the cold war it was a NATO bulwark against the Soviet Union. Then it was a model of a thriving Muslim democracy on the edge of an oppressive and violently chaotic Arab world. More recently Turkey has admirably taken in 2m refugees fleeing fighting across the border in Syria.But these days Turkey’s reputation is tarnished. An election on November 1st takes place at a time of renewed war against Kurdish PKK guerrillas, suicide-bombings at home, assaults on a free media, the sidelining of independent prosecutors and judges, and a sense that Turkey has sometimes been worryingly indulgent towards the jihadists of Islamic State (IS).