In Washington last month (May 17), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lectured an audience of academics, diplomats and journalists about the consequences of failing to alleviate the suffering of innocents in Syria, Somalia, Palestine, Darfur and Myanmar.

“Where this is no justice, there is no humanity,” Erdogan said. “People who are looking for their own peace in the pain of others are not human beings.”

Quick to criticize others, the Turkish leader has been surprised by the sudden outburst of protests against him at home, where he has shown scant empathy for the pain of countrymen bombarded with tear gas and water cannons. Erdogan’s tone-deaf response to the demonstrations in Istanbul and other major cities — blaming hooligans, opposition political parties and even foreigners — suggests that he has forgotten a cardinal rule of politics: There is a limit to how long you can stay in office and remain popular.

The great American founding father, Benjamin Franklin, famously said that fish and house guests begin to smell after three days. In politics, the equivalent appears to be two terms in elected office.