Copyright: Gobierno de Chile [CC BY 3.0 cl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/cl/deed.en) or CC BY 3.0 cl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/cl/deed.en)]
Over a quarter million people have left Turkey in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt and the ruthless crackdown on civil liberties by president Erdogan that followed. Most of those who left are students and academicians as well as entrepreneurs and affluent business people who are leaving with their extended families and their money. In 2018 alone, 113 thousand Turkish citizens emigrated, compared to 67 thousand in 2017. According to many Turkish intellectuals, this time it is different; a real despair is setting in among the religiously moderate Turkish elites who see no hope for improvement in their society after 17 years of the Erdogan quasi-dictatorship. This flight of capital, both monetary and human does not bode well for Turkey as a developed nation and a source of stability in the volatile Eastern Mediterranean.
