Just a few days ago almost all dominant names in newspapers and on TV screens in Turkey were saying there was no possibility of an early election. Those who dared to suggest there were economic and political indications for a snap election were accused of “talking with an opposition mouth.”*
A day after his alliance partner, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, asked for an early election to be held on Aug. 26, President Tayyip Erdoğan on April 18 announced that Turkey would hold parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24.
Despite President Tayyip Erdoğan’s persistent rhetoric about elections being held “on time,” meaning November 2019, his main political ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on April 17 suggested holding early elections.
Hours after the U.S., Britain and France conducted joint military strikes on Syria on April 14, experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were scheduled to start their works in the Syrian town of Douma, where an alleged chemical weapons attack was carried out last week. Their mission is to understand whether or not any chemical weapons were used in the Syrian regime forces’ attack on the rebel-held town on April 7 and, if so, which chemical agent was used.
“[Turkey’s] relations with countries like Russia, Iran, and China are not an alternative to our relations with the West. On the contrary, they are complementary. This position is not an obstacle to us in expressing the wrongs of the two sides.” Those remarks were spoken by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a speech delivered in Ankara on April 12.
As the free fall of the Turkish Lira against the U.S. dollar and euro continues, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said it was uncertainties that were posing risks to the Turkish economy.
Up until recently the Korean confrontation was thought to be the major threat facing the world. China then intervened, not wanting a hot conflict on its borders that could affect its economy. Chinese President Xi Jinping invited Kim Jong-un to Beijing and they had a key meeting at the end of March, which played a major role in de-escalation of tension in the Pacific. Now there are reports about a possible meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump amid a trade struggle between the two countries. North Korea thus seems to have been removed from the list as the weakest link in a chain that could trigger a bigger, global scale war.
On Aug. 20, 2012, in the early stages of the second year of the Syrian civil war, then U.S. President Barack Obama said the following upon claims that Bashar al-Assad had started using chemical weapons against rebels:
When the U.S. State Department put on hold talks with the Turkish Foreign Ministry about the status of the Syrian town of Manbij last week, some claimed that the move signaled the White House’s inclination to dump Turkey.
