Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during an election in Istanbul March 23, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - To the adulation of the cheering crowds at his election rallies, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan paints a picture of an "evil alliance" plotting to topple him and break Turkey. In another place, on another day, his chief rival portrays him as a rogue doomed to jail or exile.
Sunday's local polls have taken on a significance far beyond what anyone could have dreamt before a graft scandal broke around Erdogan with police raids in December. Emerging from the harsh rhetoric of what can now scarcely pass as debate is a vision of two Turkeys that are scarcely compatible.
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