Voters denied Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) a majority for the first time in 13 years, while giving the country’s long-repressed Kurdish minority its biggest voice yet in Turkish politics.
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For the USA, the prospect of another indecisive vote could hardly come at a worse time, as the Obama administration tries to enlist Ankara in the building worldwide coalition to find a political settlement in Syria and defeat the Islamic State terrorist group. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for new elections after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu failed to form a coalition with any of the three opposition parties represented in parliament.
Such foes are eager to reopen a biting corruption probe that Mr. Erdogan famously decried as a “coup attempt” after it almost brought his government to its knees in 2013. That is why the October 10 terrorist attack, instead of being an opportunity to unite the political forces and all of society against terror, highlighted the rifts between Turkey’s left and right, between religious and secular forces, between Sunnis and Alevis, between Turks and Kurds.
A stable Turkey is clearly in US interests, but Walker says the main USA concern regarding the election isn’t who wins, but that the process is free and fair and Turkey’s traditional role as a solid democracy in a region of authoritarian regimes is maintained. It is seen as promoting a conservative Turkish identity and letting national security define its approach to government.
But the tensions appeared to be easing during recent years. “Once people saw the pressure on the HDP, they understood that this regime is very totalitarian, dictatorial and they have also a fundamentalist belief in themselves”.
His June election setback sparked headlines proclaiming “the beginning of the end”. For the first time, HDP easily cleared the 10 percent threshold needed for representation as a party in parliament, taking seats mostly at AKP’s expense. Polling indicates that the pro-Islamist party’s vote share has been hovering at around 40-42 percent – roughly where they were in June when they received 40.9 percent. Mr. Erdogan, who now serves as president, used his prerogative to call for elections this weekend.
Constitution: Erdogan hopes to officially change the constitution to make Turkey a presidential system of government (it is now a parliamentary one).
Turkish fighter jets have repeatedly bombed PKK targets in Iraq since June. Many people are coming through Turkey from Europe and the rest of the world, everyone knows that, they are joining this group. The previous election was marred by bomb attacks in the days leading up to the June 7 vote and earlier this month 102 people were killed in a suicide attack in Ankara. Both men skirted the question of where the strikes occurred and exactly what provoked them, and government officials refused to elaborate.
“There are serious doubts about who really organized the Ankara attack last month”, said Cenk Sidar, who heads the Washington-based research and strategic advisory firm Sidar Global Advisors.
On the same day, police detained and interrogated 32 journalists and media workers, all from Kurdish news outlets, in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir.
CHP: The largest opposition party in Turkey.
“What kind of nonsense is this?” he said. Why would Kurds kill Kurds?
Threatening continued assaults on the Kurdish militia in Syria, the Turkish president has warned he will not request anyone’s permission to do whatever is necessary to prevent the spread of support for Kurdish autonomy, even if it requires bombing US-allied rebels.
“When Turkish nationalists come to power, the bombers, assassins and assailants will look for a place to hide”, Bahceli thundered at a midweek MHP campaign rally.
“The PYD is committing ethnic cleansing here (of) Arabs and Turkmen”, Erdogan said.
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Any decision adopted in Vienna regarding the status of Assad in Syria could help Erdogan ahead of the elections. But Erdogan effectively endorsed it, with a newspaper quoting him as saying that the government had information that it would turn over to a court that is investigating Akin Ipek, the owner of the newspapers Bugun and Millet, and their respective TV channels.
