how the new erdoğan killed the old one
Last Updated : GMT 09:03:51
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today
Last Updated : GMT 09:03:51
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today

How the new Erdoğan killed the old one

Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today

how the new erdoğan killed the old one

Amir Taheri

When Turkey went to the polls to vote in last Sunday’s general elections, almost all commentators expected a setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). What they could not agree upon was the extent and the intensity of the expected setback.

In the event, the results amounted to a bigger setback for Erdoğan than even the most ardent pessimists had forecast. Over the past 13 years, the AKP has contested four general and five local elections, each time increasing its share of the vote. The average vote secured by the AKP in these elections comes to around 45 percent. This time, however, AKP’s share of the vote fell to 41 percent in an election with a high turnout of 86 percent. In other words, the 13-year long trend that saw AKP increase its share of the vote with each successive election has now been dramatically reversed.

So, what do the results tell us?

The first message, and this is an important one, is that the kind of politics that AKP offers still enjoys a bedrock support base but is rejected by two-thirds of the Turkish electorate. This means that while there is no doubt that the AKP can no longer set the agenda in Ankara; it would be premature to write it off as the single largest political force in Turkey. The majority of the millions who abandoned the AKP did so because they rejected Erdoğan personally, not because they had grown disenchanted with the party’s posture as a pro-business and moderate Islamist movement. Thus, some Western headlines shrieking that “Turkey Rejects Islam” may be off the mark.

Next, it is clear that the massive anti-AKP vote was, in the first instance, a vote against Erdoğan’s slide down the slippery slope of hubris. I don’t share the view of some Turks who believe that Erdoğan has simply become unhinged. But there is no doubt that his weird behavior over the past few years indicates a gradual loss of contact with reality. His last minute use of anti-American, anti-European Union and anti-Israeli themes looked like nothing more than a drowning man reaching for the shadow of a buoy.

Erdoğan’s neo-Ottoman dreams of sultanhood or even caliphate-dom cannot be dismissed as mere quirks of character. The fact that many in his own camp now criticize his penchant for pomposity shows that the concern is more widely shared than he imagines. The old Erdoğan was perhaps the most genuinely popular politician in modern Turkish history. But he was killed by the new Erdoğan in a political version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Yet another message concerns the emergence of new ethnic and gender-based constituencies. Even a decade ago the prospect of an ethnic-based Kurdish party contesting the election, let alone winning almost 14 percent of the vote, would have been unimaginable. Last Sunday, however, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) won 82 seats in the 550 seat Grand National Assembly while proudly asserting its basic Kurdish identity. This is a major development when we recall the fact that a couple of decades ago one could end up in prison simply by talking of a Kurdish identity.

Equally important is the shattering of the glass roof that prevented Turkish women, more than half of the electorate, from securing a fairer share of representation in the Grand National Assembly. Sunday’s polls could be regarded as historic because it gave women over 100 seats.

Yet another message is that the Turkish electorate is moving towards the center. The radical nationalist parties marketing pan-Turkist shibboleths did not manage to break out of their niche position. Thus, Turkish voters did not believe that opposing AKPs crypto-Islamist ideology requires a switch to ultra-nationalist fantasies based on “blood and soil” politics.

The election results confirmed the belief that many of us have held with regard to Middle Eastern politics, namely that a parliamentary system of government is more suitable to the realities of the region than a US-style presidential one. Over the past century and in almost every case in the Middle East, a presidential system has produced nothing but dictatorship. Erdoğan’s attempt at replacing the Turkish parliamentary system with a presidential one must be rated as a key reason for his defeat.

Finally, the election is yet another demonstration of the Turkish democracy’s capacity for self-correction through free and fair elections. The old claim that only the army could stop the country’s deviation from the right path and/or drift towards extremism has been fully exposed as a sham. When the Turkish way of life is in danger, as it was with Erdoğan’s neo-Ottoman recipe, the cure is not a military coup but a general election.

While it is too early to speculate about the aftermath of the election it is clear that whatever shape the next government might assume, a number of changes are inevitable in Turkish domestic and foreign policies.

Domestically, Turkey needs a period of healing to undo the damage done by Erdoğan’s divisive behavior and his thirst for extra-judicial revenge against opponents. The election produced an accurate picture of Turkish reality as a diverse society with multiple ethnic and religious communities and a rich spectrum of political diversity. The Turks have rejected the old Middle Eastern political myth that equates unity with uniformity.

The next government will also have to revisit the perennial Kurdish problem which, for the first time perhaps, could be tackled in the context of a pluralist and democratic Turkey.

On a different register, Turkey needs to review the grandiose projects Erdoğan has launched, ostensibly to raise the nation’s global profile but, as his critics claim, partly to benefit the oligarchs backing the AKP. At a time that the economy is experiencing a slowdown, such projects make even less sense whole adding to Turkey’s already gargantuan foreign debt.

In foreign policy, Turkey needs to repair its ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and traditional partners in the Middle East especially the Arab states. One step in that direction would be the harmonization of policy over Syria and Iraq and the adoption of a more principled position regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Russia’s muscle-flexing in its “near-neighborhood”.

Last Sunday, people of Turkey did well. Now they need to do even better.

The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arab Today.

GMT 13:29 2018 Friday ,31 August

Iran and the Luminary from Saarland

GMT 13:14 2018 Friday ,31 August

Qaradawi: Politics is more important than Hajj!

GMT 17:03 2018 Thursday ,30 August

EU must help heal the sick man of Europe

GMT 15:49 2018 Thursday ,30 August

Women in Saudi municipalities

GMT 13:43 2018 Wednesday ,29 August

Amir Hatami in Syria: To stay or withdraw?

GMT 09:56 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Washington chooses Syria as its battleground

GMT 09:52 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Road ahead full of danger as new front opens in Syria

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

how the new erdoğan killed the old one how the new erdoğan killed the old one

 



Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Skincare PR Performance Full Year 2017

GMT 09:22 2018 Monday ,22 January

Skincare PR Performance Full Year 2017
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today New hunt for flight MH370 gets under way

GMT 11:03 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

New hunt for flight MH370 gets under way
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Modern colorful bedroom renovation

GMT 10:57 2017 Thursday ,21 December

Modern colorful bedroom renovation
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Puigdemont candidate for Catalan president

GMT 13:56 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Puigdemont candidate for Catalan president
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today Turkey detains dozens more

GMT 10:47 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

Turkey detains dozens more

GMT 20:54 2013 Tuesday ,01 October

Qatar sailing championship to begin on October 1

GMT 13:57 2013 Thursday ,03 October

UJ president visits Faculty of Law

GMT 12:52 2012 Saturday ,28 January

Black Rice and Red Lentil Salad

GMT 16:20 2016 Saturday ,20 February

Irradiated mosquitoes to help zap Zika's power

GMT 00:03 2012 Sunday ,22 January

Hayek Gorgeous in Leather dress

GMT 20:18 2016 Thursday ,07 July

Clinton will not face charges over Emails

GMT 08:00 2017 Monday ,27 February

Amazing ideas to decorate a master bedroom

GMT 17:01 2017 Tuesday ,17 October

Iraq president blames Kurdish poll for Kirkuk assault

GMT 05:54 2011 Tuesday ,06 September

Part of brain differs in those with autism

GMT 08:59 2016 Friday ,26 August

Bolivian deputy minister killed by miners

GMT 05:04 2011 Tuesday ,20 September

Heavy to moderate rains in Fujairah

GMT 09:34 2015 Tuesday ,14 April

Armed tribes seise Yemen's only gas terminal

GMT 17:51 2017 Sunday ,23 July

US teen rookie Korda grabs two-shot LPGA lead

GMT 14:01 2016 Thursday ,29 September

Disney announces live-action remake of 'The Lion King'
Almaghrib Today, almaghrib today
 
 Almaghrib Today Facebook,almaghrib today facebook  Almaghrib Today Twitter,almaghrib today twitter Almaghrib Today Rss,almaghrib today rss  Almaghrib Today Youtube,almaghrib today youtube  Almaghrib Today Youtube,almaghrib today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

.almaghribtoday .almaghribtoday .almaghribtoday .almaghribtoday
almaghribtoday almaghribtoday almaghribtoday
almaghribtoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
almaghribtoday, Almaghribtoday, Almaghribtoday