In a world of tragedies relayed by 24-hour news cycles and countless social-media accounts, injustice is perversely diminished and distorted by its frequent visibility. From the war in Ukraine to major social instability in Yemen, Iran, Pakistan, and elsewhere, to the violence perpetrated by Hamas militants and the Israeli military against neighboring civilian populations, atrocities throughout 2023 have caused dramatic realignments, forcing everyone, everywhere, to consider the consequences of dogmatic ideologies and nationalism. 

One of the era’s great political demagogues is the Islamist-inspired leader of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who won a narrow victory over an opposition coalition in May, despite twin earthquakes that killed in excess of 50,000 people in southeastern Turkey in February. Months later, in September, a Turkish appeals court upheld the life sentence for the philanthropist Osman Kavala, who was absurdly, and without evidence, convicted of attempting to overthrow the government—the culmination of a campaign since 2017 of illegal pretrial detention, double jeopardy, judicial irregularities, and blatant political persecution, coupled with Erdoğan’s antisemitic rhetoric for Kavala’s affiliation with the George Soros-established Open Society Foundation.