As own goals go, the decision by the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to impose a $3.2bn fine on the country’s leading media group for alleged tax evasion takes some beating.

Mr Erdogan’s neo-Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) has always been regarded with suspicion by Turkey’s secular elites, while Ankara’s stalled attempt to join the European Union is regarded with hostility by member states such as France and Germany. This arbitrary fine is a godsend to the AKP government’s most strident critics, putschist Kemalists at home and EU xenophobes abroad, who can now half plausibly compare Erdogan’s Turkey to Putin’s Russia.