An election with many losers and one winner: Erdoğan
First of all, I should say that everybody should respect the election results. At this hour as I am writing this piece, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the elections, enough to form a one-party government.
All the others have lost.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli is the most important figure in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political career; it has once more been confirmed with this election. He was the one who broke the coalition and opted for early elections in 2002.
Then he did not sign the decision to take Cem Uzan’s Turkish citizenship, causing his own party to be left below the election threshold and opening the way for the AKP to come to power alone.
Last of all, with the anti-politics he adopted after the June 7 elections, he caused the grassroots of his party shift to the AKP.
He lost to Erdoğan’s early election play, he could not manage his party well and with personal decisions, he did not even include important names on the new list of deputies. In such a case, it is inevitable that he will be called to account in his party.
The Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş was barely crossing the threshold as I was writing this. One reason for this is that this party was not able to understand that the votes that came to the HDP on June 7 were “borrowed” votes.
But the real important reason is that the Kudistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacks have turned many cities in the southeast into fireplaces…
The HDP did not adopt a sharp stance against these acts and did not oppose silly initiatives such as the “declaration of autonomy.” With this stance, it contributed to the warlords of the PKK. In short, the HDP was not able to free itself from the “military tutelage” of the PKK.
Who knows, maybe they were already expecting such a result and wanted it; I cannot stop myself from thinking this.
I have stopped counting how many elections Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the main opposition leader and head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have lost during the period he was leading the party.
In a country where the economy, justice system, education system have all collapsed in the 13-year AKP rule and where democratic rights and freedoms are almost non-existent, the ideological reasons are, of course, more important when a social democrat party stays stagnant in every election. But it is also the leader who should be questioned, every time.
Kılıçdaroğlu was not able to raise the low-profile election campaign and his party stayed at the same level. A similar fate to Bahçeli’s is waiting for Kılıçdaroğlu.
Ahmet Davutoğlu won his second elections with enough votes and number of deputies adequate to form a strong government; however, it is possible to discuss if this is Davutoğlu’s victory.
It is obvious that the real winner is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He may not be able to reach the presidential system but we can say that we will transform into an undeclared semi-presidential order.
Davutoğlu, even after an election he has won, has to “stomach” that he is to maintain his “subordinate prime minister” status. This was his dilemma anyway. If he had lost maybe he would have left politics but now he has won. But he does not have the hammer in his hand; it is in the hands of the palace.
Will this bother him, I do not know.
Turkey has held another election and a significant portion of the people have sided with “fighting.” There is only one meaning in the outcome of these elections: Turkey is dragged into a one-man dictatorship.
In the four years ahead of us we will have important issues such as democracy, peace and cohabitation respecting others’ existence.
In normal democracies, every election causes the political tension to drop. But, here, the fact the elections resulted this way is that the palace’s aggressive and “otherizing” policies are accepted.
This acceptance means that this country, for a long time, will not find peace.
Let us repeat the famous principle: The people get the government they deserve.
