Erdogan’s dreams of more power shattered

 

With 99 per cent of votes counted, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party has lost its majority, as for the first time in the republic’s history a pro-Kurdish party is in parliament

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s dreams of more power lay in tatters on Sunday as the country’s ruling party was handed its worst result in more than a decade.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been in a tight race to keep its hold of the country’s National Assembly, – a far cry from its stated aims of winning a sweeping victory, then changing the country’s constitution, ccording Raziye Akkoc, Istanbul , the Telegraph.

AKP could still find itself forced into a coalition, although a senior party official told Reuters it expected a minority government and an early election.

To win a majority, the party needed at least 276 seats in the 550-seat assembly – but with 99 per cent of the votes counted, the AKP had won 258 seats, or a little over 41 per cent of the vote.

 The pro-Kurdish party, People’s Democratic Party (HDP) won 78 seats, and will enter parliament for the first time.

This would mean it will become the country’s first pro-Kurdish party in the Turkish parliament, with 11.7 per cent of the vote. Since 2013, there has been a ceasefire between Turkey’s government and the Kurdish insurgency, PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).

More than 40,000 people were killed during the insurgency between 1984 and 2013 but since then Kurdish rights have begun to be accepted.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman with Figen Yuksekdag, said the victory was one for all minorities, women, workers and the oppressed.

“It is a joint victory of the Left,” he said.

The election was a momentous day for minorities in Turkey as three Armenian candidates, AKP’s Makar Esayan, HDP’s Garo Paylan and the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Selima Dogan were expected to enter parliament. They will be the country’s only Armenian parliamentarians.

AKP in 2011 received more than 49 per cent of the vote, its highest result. But if the initial results are backed by final tallies, this will make it the first time its domination of the Turkish political scene is no longer guaranteed.

The Turkish prime minister thanked his supporters in his hometown of Konya, central Turkey.

“The nation’s decision is the best decision. Do not worry. We will never bow down to any power,” Ahmet Davutoglu said.

Mr Davutoglu said on Sunday that the AK Party was the clear winner and vowed to take all necessary measures to prevent harm to Turkey’s political stability.

“Everyone should see that the AKP is the winner and leader of these elections,” Mr Davutoglu said in a speech to supporters from the balcony of the AKP headquarters in Ankara. “No one should try to build a victory from an election they lost.”

Mr Erdogan and the AKP had hoped it would get a two-thirds supermajority (367 seats) and change the 1982 constitution to create an executive presidential system.

Casting his vote in Istanbul earlier, Mr Erdogan acknowledged the sometimes vicious campaign had been a “challenging marathon”.

The party first swept to power in 2002 after it was founded by Mr Erdogan, the former president Abdullah Gul and others in 2001.

Before the results were announced, Etyen Mahcupyan, a former adviser to the prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, said he believed the Kurdish party would pass the threshold.

“HDP will receive anti-AKP votes but the CHP will also lose votes to HDP,” he told the Telegraph.

During the campaign, there were suggestions AKP, if necessary, would form a coalition with the far-Right nationalists, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). They are the country’s third largest party and could win 83 seats.

But Oktay Vural told Reuters it was too early to make any comment on whether there would be a coalition.

“It would be wrong for me to make an assessment about a coalition, our party will assess that in the coming period. I think the AK Party will be making its own new evaluations after this outcome,” he said.

The Telegraph spoke to voters who had switched from AKP to MHP during the voting period. Durmus Ceylan, from Beyoglu in Istanbul, said he had voted MHP in the last two elections.

“I don’t like what they’re becoming,” he said as he criticised the party’s economic policy in recent years.

According to Akin Unver, assistant professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, the numbers suggested there would be a coalition.

“There is a Mexican stand-off between CHP, MHP and HDP. If AKP annoys all three, they may keep AKP out. If there is a snap election, AKP would lose.

“A snap election is a negative thing in Turkey, whoever wants that, loses the election.”

According to the Independent, Thousands of Kurds took to the streets in Turkey on Sunday night after the main pro-Kurdish party won enough votes to enter parliament for the first time.

The general election also delivered a major blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been hoping that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) would increase its share of the vote to allow it to change the constitution and hand him more power.

However, with 99 per cent of the vote counted, the AKP appeared to have lost its parliamentary majority after getting about 41 per cent of the vote, down from 49 per cent in 2011, with the main secular opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) in second place on about 25 per cent and the nationalist MHP in third on just under 17 per cent.

These elections were the first time disparate Kurdish candidates had come together in the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) and it also made a bid for disenchanted left-leaning and secular CHP voters, as well as religious conservative Kurds who previously voted for the AKP.

The strategy appeared to have paid off with the HDP set to get 12 per cent, taking it above the 10 per cent threshold needed to get any MPs for the first time. They could now get about 80 of the 550 seats.

Jubilant Kurds flooded the streets of Diyarbakir in south-eastern Turkey, setting off fireworks and waving flags.

“This result shows that this country has had enough. Enough of Erdogan and his anger,” said Seyran Demir, a 47-year-old housewife who was among the thousands who gathered in the streets around the HDP’s provincial headquarters.

“I am so full of joy that I can’t speak properly.”

Sermin Ilik, 56, a retired teacher in Ankara, switched to the HDP after a lifelong commitment to the CHP.

“I think they are the most democratic party in Turkey. I really want them to pass the threshold because they will stop the AKP,” she told The Independent.

“They [the HDP]have struggled for years and it’s enough. I’ll give them my vote because I want to give them a chance to prove themselves.”

Referring to the decades-long armed conflict with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), she added: “Once they [the HDP]have a say in parliament, they will be part of the system without their weapons.

The AKP was expected to get 258 MPs, 18 below the number needed for a majority. President Erdogan’s party had hoped to increase the number of its MPs to 367, a so-called super-majority that would have enabled it to change the constitution and create a US-style executive presidency.

It may now face having to form a coalition government, which would be the first time the party was not able to rule by a majority since it came to power in 2002.

Some suggested that could be with the CHP. In its stronghold Besiktas district in Istanbul, voters young and old stood by the party founded by Kemal Ataturk.

“I would prefer a coalition of the AKP and the CHP to having the HDP in government – they’re terrorists,” said 22-year-old Yasin.

For AKP voters, however, their party is the only one they think can provide stability. Many remember the days of seemingly endless coalition governments, a weak economy and political infighting.

“We need a strong leader. This government has been in power for 12 years and it keeps being successful,” Firat, 30, said from behind his counter in Istanbul’s pro-AKP neighbourhood of Tophane.

 

M. A.