It is anything but.
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Although the AKP is short of a two-thirds majority in parliament, mustering the support needed for changing the constitution will not be hard. If the Kurds felt they played an equal role in an inclusive society then the PKK would more likely than not be little more than a fringe reactionary cult organization which the Turkish state could have successfully dismantled years ago with the help of their Kurdish compatriots. The President who this time (unlike in the June elections) had kept himself away from public appearances and rallies, exclaimed that the electorate had “given proof of their strong desire for the unity and integrity of Turkey”.
The second aim is the reason for the AKP’s success.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called for a new constitution after his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) weekend triumph at the ballot box.
The AKP gained 317 seats in the 550-member parliament in the November 1 snap elections.
Improbably, Erdogan was able to embody stability when the politics of instability have been his modus operandi over the past five months. The mention of a “new Turkey” is widely seen to refer to the powerful presidency Erdogan seeks. Bakhtiar said the PUK has also urged the PKK to support the HDP joining the government.
The citizens of Turkey now face the decisive question of whether to accept or reject the results of this election.
When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rescued a Turkish republic from the wreckage of the Ottoman empire after the First World War, he was determined to make it a European state. Plus, major corruption scandals have rocked the AKP and tarnished its populist image. “Also the HDP is no ultra-nationalist Kurdish party, it is the peoples’ democratic force in Turkey and both can effectively contribute to the democratic process”. The more important truth is the AKP did not lose a lot of votes in consideration of its behavior, they won enough to be a majority party but the margins were adjusted to keep Turkish a one party state.
The AKP’s attempt to win conservative votes by whipping up an anti-Kurdish frenzy was already underway before June, but the government raised the stakes in the months since-including stepped-up air strikes against Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq. In the previous weeks, multiple curfews had been declared in the city and in several towns in the region.
“This is precisely the rhetoric that the AKP has used in attempting to paint the HDP as terrorists”.
The military said 31 Kurdish militants were killed in the raids, but the figures could not be independently verified. Erdogan and the PKK underwent peace negotiations earlier this year before talks collapsed in July.
The AKP needs to go over the fundamentals of its decade long success in the country before it charts its future course.
The campaign against the Kurds won’t end now that Erdoğan has won back a parliamentary majority. “I am not categorically against the government, but they are so intolerant they can not tolerate this”.
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Given the history of fraud in Turkey’s elections, that this one was rigged comes as no shock, especially as rumors swirled in advance about sophisticated efforts to manipulate the results. We believe it is worth considering the resumption of a ceasefire with the militants, which was suspended in July. There was not enough opposition to make ridiculous AKP manipulations of the election. If sweeping amendments to the constitution that were proposed in 2014 were to pass, they would strip a few of the executive power from the parliament while increasing the power of the presidency.
