While the party “stands behind its words that it won’t make Erdogan an executive president”, the issue can’t be avoided as the process of re-writing the constitution gets under way, Ayhan Bilgen, an HDP spokesman, said by phone Wednesday.
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The election results, which give the AKP a clear mandate to rule for four more years, show that Turks were “scared by the potential of civil conflict starting in southeast Turkey again”, said Soner Cagaptay, a Turkey expert at the Washington Institute.
After winning a crucial parliamentary victory this week, a jubilant Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the results “proof of [Turkish citizens’] strong desire for the unity and integrity” of their divided nation.
Bouachrine went on to say that the AKP’s fourth-term win has not been good news for many countries in the region.
The entire reason for this new vote that was held now, in November, so soon after the June vote, was because Erdogan called for early elections in order to retrieve his majority. “Even when they were open, there were no customers”, he said. It garnered enough support of the Turkish electorate to break the 10% threshold to enter parliament last June by getting approximately 13% of the vote.
Soon after he spoke, the general staff said on its website two soldiers and 15 PKK militants had been killed in clashes near the village of Daglica by the Iraqi border, which the military had targeted with airstrikes on Tuesday. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 132 seats, and the Nationalist Movement (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) won 80 seats each.
The PKK’s latest declaration, on top of the renewed surge in violence, was a fresh source of concern for foreign investors who broadly viewed Sunday’s election as offering the potential for increased stability in NATO-member Turkey.
Erdogan then pushed for snap elections and appears to have succeeded in his efforts to ensure the party he founded is the sole party in government.
Last month, the country suffered its worth terror attack in its modern history when 102 activists calling for peace between the state and PKK were killed after twin suicide bombings.
Erdogan’s relationship with the liberal and secular Turkish Kurds, damaged by his divisive rhetoric and political tactics, is likely to deteriorate further under the new AKP government. Erdogan has the means, motive and opportunity to exploit this moment of authority, and his recent political behaviour suggests he will.
For over a year and a half, Turkey did virtually nothing as the ISIS swept through Syria and Iraq, essentially because the terrorist group was fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, whom Erdogan wanted to see out of power.
“A Kurdish young man was shot dead in the town of Silvan, while a 24-hour curfew was ordered by the military in three neighborhoods for a second successive day”, he added, pointing out “the clashes between security forces and the PKK’s loyalists continued all the day”. Growing conflict with Turkey’s largest minority remains a key challenge for the new government.
Manufacturing a state of emergency in the country – at a very high cost to human life, national cohesion and the economy – for the goal of creating a sense of fear in the Turkish nationalist majority ultimately worked.
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Turkey will continue its “open-door” policy towards Syrian refugees, whether or not the European Union provides financial assistance, said Kalin.
