Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has recently been making some interesting but worrying statements.
U.S. President Donald Trump will certainly make history as one of the most irresponsible and insensitive world leaders. His controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has already claimed the lives of dozens of Palestinians, further de-stabilizing the already fragile Middle East.
Turkey held its first popular presidential elections in August 2014. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then prime minister and head of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), won the election with the support of 52 percent of voters against his two rivals, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu – the joint candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) - and Selahattin Demirtaş, the now-jailed former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was the first presidential nominee to reveal his election manifesto through a big event in Istanbul on May 6.
With less than 50 days to go until snap elections, political parties’ pre-election campaigns have already begun, with the announcement this week of their presidential candidates.
According to the timeline announced by the Supreme Election Board (YSK), all candidates willing to run for president in the July 24 elections need to be registered by May 5. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will race for the title as the joint candidate of the People’s Alliance, composed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
NATO’s entire staff of diplomats, military officers and employees are these days waiting excitedly to move to the alliance’s new headquarters.
The course of Turkish politics has been drastically changed in the seven days since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) announced their decision to hold early elections on June 24.
Regardless who wins the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, a new era will be opened for Turkey and Turkish politics. June 25 will mark the beginning of full implementation of the substantial constitutional amendments narrowly approved in last year’s referendum, shifting the administrative system from a parliamentary to an executive presidential system.
