Enough Of Erdogan: Verdict In Turkey Election

Tayyip Erdogan’s dream of turning an all powerful president has been stalled by the Turkish voters. The just concluded parliamentary election experienced the voters’ negation of a dreaming sultan. To many, it’s a victory over political corruption. Erdogan was seeking a two-thirds majority to turn the country into a presidential governing system.

The voters’ voiced, as the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas told journalists in his first post-election speech: All people who are for freedoms, all the oppressed, all workers, all women and all minorities, had won together. He said: “It’s a joint victory of the left.” HDP’s crossing of election threshold – 10% – was a major victory for the left-leaning party.

The Turkish president Erdogan’s plan of assuming all encompassing powers received a major blow in the election as his conservative Justice and Development Party (AK Party) failed to win a clean majority in the election. The electoral hurricane has destroyed the AKP’s authoritarian rule for 13 years. The party was hopeful of a smooth win, and impose a stronger strangle on the Turkish life. But the party failed to secure 276 seats, the requirement for single-majority in the parliament.

The election, hopefully, is going to begin a new phase in Turkey-politics as it jolts the draconian domination. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s leader Kemal Kılıcdaroglu told his supporters: The election results mark the end of an era in Turkey. “We ended an era of oppression through democratic means. Democracy has won. Turkey has won,” said the CHP leader. The same expression was made by the CHP spokesperson Haluk Koc: “Erdogan was the real loser of the election. The real winner of this election is democracy. Turkey has won, Erdogan has lost.”

The AKP with its single-party majority in parliament was imposing its repressive and divisive policy. It was tearing down fundamental values the society nurtured for long. Its arrogance was throwing out every consideration.

The election was not fully peaceful and fair. HDP was made target of violence since campaign days. Its workers and supporters were victims of scores of physical attacks during campaign days. One of its campaign bus drivers was murdered. A bomb attack killed the party’s three supporters in Diyarbakır.

The ruling party – AKP – used, it was alleged by HDP, all state powers. Ann-Margarethe Livh, Sweden’s housing and democracy commissioner said there were “blatant instances of fraud” and international election observers had been threatened before the election. Election observation team from Sweden was threatened at gunpoint by “soldiers with automatic weapons” in the southeastern province of Bingol. According to Livh, the Swedish election observation team was told they had two minutes to leave the area. Livh said having international observers threatened was also a huge threat to democracy.

During counting of votes coming from abroad, a group claimed that some ballots were thrown into the garbage at the Ankara Chamber of Commerce. Police had to intervene to stop a resulting fist-fight between party officials. Cars without license plates were found waiting. Police said the cars belonged to them. But Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin confirmed the cars without license plates cannot belong to police. The opposition camp claimed that there was fraud in the vote counting process.

The country’s Human Rights Association has issued a preliminary report on incidents of electoral fraud during the election. To some observers, Turkey’s election system is “the world’s most unfair election system”.

Reports of widespread fraud across have emerged. Observers detected many attempts to commit electoral fraud. There were allegations of unfair means in a number of provinces including Istanbul, Izmir, Diyarbakır and Bursa. An official in charge of a polling station in İstanbul was caught for placing pre-sealed votes for the AKP in a ballot box. A police officer in Ankara was caught while allegedly attempting to vote for the third time. A group of people carrying pre-sealed ballots for the AKP were detained in Izmir. HDP supporters and polling agents were detained. No lawyer and reporter were allowed into a number of polling stations, and ballots having no official seal were recovered.

But the assaults, threats and other unfair means failed to stop the voters’ rejection. Issues of economy and ideology cast their shadows on the election. Playing religious card in politics is an old AKP-game. But that didn’t paid back dividend.

Funny issues also cropped up. There was allegation that Erdogan had golden toilet seats at his new lavish presidential palace. However, the Turkish president denied the claims and angrily asked the main opposition leader whether he had been cleaning the palace’s toilets. Mehmet Gormez, head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs had to return the 1 million Turkish Lira ($435,000) official car, which was purchased for him. Public and opposition parties strongly criticized the religious leader’s car-affair. Erdogan sent him another Mercedes from the his fleet. Erdogan slammed his political opponents during campaign although the presidency is a non-partisan position.

At a number of public events Erdogan used religious book as campaign material. He routinely slammed national and international media outlets, and threatened journalists. He recently attacked The Guardian and The New York Times and German newspaper Die Zeit. He said Die Zeit “went berserk”. He misquoted The Guardian. To him The New York Times is ruled by “the Jewish capital.”
Erdogan once threatened a journalist that the journalist would have to pay a “heavy price” for a news story. A number of reporters were sent to prison. Hundreds of persons including cartoonists, students and even a model were prosecuted for “insulting” Erdogan since he was elected president in August 2014.

But economy was playing against Erdogan. Massive infrastructure projects, roads and airports failed to save the Turkish leader. The world’s 17th largest economy was worsening. The economy expanded at an average annual growth rate of 4.5%. The 2008 and 2009 were bad years. In 2010, the annual growth rate was 9%. But it slowed down to less than 3% last year. Unemployment has increased. It’s now more than 10%.

The working people in Turkey are facing harsh condition. There is demand for raising minimum wages. There is need for increasing employment and export in the worsening economy. And, there is demand for freedom of expression.

The election results may push for an early election. The ruling party may go through a leadership change.

Two important questions are to be dealt with: the Kurdish question, and the foreign policy. The Kurdish issue is undeniable.

The AKP’s 7 election manifesto said: “Turkey’s foreign policy has been successful in an incomparable way with those of previous governments.” But there is debate on the policy. The AKP’s policy has not made Turkey a determining power in the region although it tried to that direction. The country experienced isolation.

The journey began in the Taksim Square. It began with the question of a few hundred trees, an environmental issue. Repression, and use of force beyond proportion failed to deter the forces of democracy in Turkey. But still there is a long way to go as the election is an intermediate stage in the politics of Turkey.