Turks and Tea Leaves: Turkey Votes 2015

   by  openDemocracy 

Like many others, I am glued to my computer today watching the elections unfold in Turkey.  Living in Canada, I already cast my ballot on May 31st, but my vote, along with potentially some 53 million others is being counted today.  Because of course, this is no ordinary election.

Since 2002, the AKP has won successive elections and gradually increased its grip on the country through the ballot box.  In 2014, the AKP had its strongest showings yet, owing largely to the still disorganized nature of the opposition parties, both in the local and presidential elections.  Not that these elections were the cleanest or the fairest in Turkey’s history, mind you.  Allegations of vote theft, saboteur cats, and all manner of electoral funny business became the hallmark of an AKP trying to maintain its dominance, in spite of the tide of public opinion gradually turning against.  Indeed, after the Gezi Park riots of 2013 and the widespread accusations of corruption that it became quite clear that although the AKP was still winning big, it wasn’t winning easily and not without a little fudging of results.

The AKP, Turkey, and Kobanê: The Enemy of my Enemy is also my Enemy

US B1 bomber conducting airstrikes over Syria

   by  DVIDSHUB 

Anyone such as myself who follows developments from the Middle East is rarely, if ever, bored.  But the recent months have been both gripping and horrifying at the same time, thanks to a new calamity.  No, I’m not talking about the Ebola outbreak that seems poised to spread beyond Africa, but rather an unnatural pestilence that now plagues Iraq and Syria, and seems hell-bent on spreading further.  I’m speaking of course of the pseudo-religious savages of the so-called Islamic State (IS), formerly known as ISIS or ISIL.  IS has been at the forefront of many peoples’ minds, particularly in recent weeks as a result of the heavy fighting in the largely Kurdish Syrian border town of Kobanê (also known as Ayn al-Arab).

Pride Goeth Before a Fall: Why the AKP Could Be Its Own Worst Enemy (Part II)

In my last article, I suggested that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP’s most recent electoral success in the first-ever presidential elections could actually represent the beginning of a period where the AKP turns on itself, with chaos ensuing afterward.  Though it seems unlikely, in the 19 days since the election, there have been subtle and not-so-subtle signs of just that, especially to a trained cynical Turkish eye.

So let’s get down to business.  Logically, there are three potential fracture points within the AKP: the Abdullah Gül-Erdoğan divide; the old guard-new blood divide; and the Erdoğan-Davutoğlu divide.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall: Why the AKP Could Be Its Own Worst Enemy (Part I)

A citizen who voted in the 2014 Turkish presidential election in Istanbul

Turkey’s recent presidential elections were mired in controversy, even by the routinely volatile and bordering on insane standards of Turkish politics.  Even its immediate aftermath didn’t escape controversy and allegations of foul play, which also marked the entire run-up to the election itself on August 10, 2014.  But now that the electioneering is coming to an end, it would appear that new battle lines are being drawn across the Turkish political landscape, even within the previously-thought-to-be-invulnerable AKP.