The fourth party in parliament, the republican CHP, managed to secure about a quarter of the votes, similar to its performance in the June election. Now Erdogan can try to reach a deal with them – they will support a change of the constitution amd je will give them enhanced autonomy and national symbols in the Kurdish regions of Turkey. But the boost in support for the liberal Islamist party shows that it’s well on course to stay in power until 2023, when Turkey will celebrate the centenary of its republic.
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Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that the spokesperson stated that the debate about which political system is more efficient for Turkey is very useful.
The Turkish military said that two Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in fighting with PKK rebels in a southeastern town near the Iraqi borderline.
The citizens of Turkey now face the decisive question of whether to accept or reject the results of this election.
Turkey was the world’s top jailer of journalists in 2012 and 2013, ahead of Iran and China, according to the global Committee to Protect Journalists, before improving to 10th place in 2014. The Turkish Air Force bombed PKK positions in northern Iraq a day after the unilateral call for non-action was announced.
The statement came after Erdogan vowed to continue anti-PKK operations until every last militant was “liquidated”.
The party was banned in the summer of 1993 due to its open promulgation of cultural and political rights for Turkey’s Kurds; a similar pro-Kurdish party called the Democracy Party (DEP) emerged around the same time but was also banned in the summer of 1994 for promoting Kurdish nationalism.
And there are signs from AKP officials that negotiations could be resumed at a few point. It is not clear what the AKP might do to revive the Kurdish peace process.
However, what is needed this time is a new strategic vision that aims to develop a more realistic and integrated approach towards regional Kurdish affairs. Despite having no proof to support his theory it was evident that Erdogan wanted to, at least partially, implicate the PKK, whom he has been mono-manically focusing on destroying, in that bombing despite the striking fact he has repeatedly claimed that the HDP and the PKK are closely linked.
All of this, of course, comes amid a rapidly worsening security situation in Turkey’s backyard, much of which involves Kurds in Iraq and Syria. And while it has done well to open its doors to refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war – it hosts more Syrian refugees than all of Europe – it is known to re-deploy them as fighters in Syria. “There was a lot of hope that we could change the government”. The AKP won complete control of the Turkish Parliament but is short of enough seats to amend the Constitution to establish an executive Presidency. On the other hand, the AKP is aware that the harsh rhetoric it used against the Syrian Kurds only helped the unification of Kurds around their Kurdish identity in the run up to the June elections. He argued that constitutional change was one of the underlining messages of the election.
“We think the future of North Kurdistan (in Turkey) depends on development in all of Turkey”.
Despite months of violence and unrest, spirits were high in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish town in the country’s southeast, prior to Sunday’s elections. “If the mechanism requires a referendum, then we will hold a referendum”, Kalin told reporters, adding the change was not simply a personal issue for Erdogan.
In an article for POLITICO, former member of the Turkish parliament Aykan Erdemir expresses his belief that the AKP victory was facilitated by the hostilities between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Erdogan regime.
Speaking in the capital, Erdoğan said the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, would consult opposition leaders on rewriting the constitution. One of the options could be the pro-Kurdish HDP which has entered the Parliament with 59 seats. But how it would be possible to further exclude the HDP from the process is yet to be seen; any absence of the HDP from the talks can only damage the political leg of the process.
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“The polarization of society is set to continue, just as observers warned”.
