Turkey's Erdogan takes a gamble, eyes a new election

[webfact]

Turkey's Erdogan takes a gamble, eyes a new election
By SUZAN FRASER

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared a shadow of his former self after his party suffered major losses in the June election — embattled and no longer in control of his political fate. His once-dominant movement was forced into the humiliating position of seeking a coalition with opposition parties intent on reining him in.

Two months later, the shrewd politician seems to be back in the saddle. The coalition-building he reportedly opposed has collapsed, and Turkey is now edging closer toward the new election he has been angling for.

Erdogan appears to be betting that a new ballot could revive the fortunes of the Islamic-rooted party, which he founded and led for more than a decade. That would put him back on course to reshape Turkey's democracy, giving the largely ceremonial presidency sweeping powers that would allow him to wield control over government affairs.

Last week, he claimed since he was elected by popular vote instead of by Parliament, Turkey now had a "de facto" new system with a more powerful president, and a new constitution was needed to reflect the change. Erdogan has already been overstepping the bounds of his symbolic role on most matters of state, including Turkey's fight against terror.

But a new election at a time of escalating violence between Turkey's security forces and Kurdish rebels — and amid Turkey's deeper involvement in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State extremists — could backfire.

In recent weeks, dozens have been killed in renewed clashes between Turkey's military and the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Turkish jets have conducted air raids on IS targets in Syria and Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, while U.S. jets last week launched their first airstrikes against IS targets in Syria from the key Turkish base at Incirlik, close to the border with Syria.

The truth is Erdogan is already calling the shots, including on military affairs, behind the scenes.

"Erdogan is back in the driver's seat," said Svante Cornell, Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. "But the car's wheels are falling — and the car is breaking down."

The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came first in the June 7 election, but fell short of a majority for the first time since it came to power in 2002. A coalition government would have limited Erdogan's ability to influence the government.

After weeks of stalling, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a former foreign minister and Erdogan adviser, embarked on talks with Turkey's pro-secular party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, to seek a possible coalition. The power-sharing talks failed Thursday, days after Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan of obstructing the coalition efforts — a view shared by many but denied by Erdogan.

Davutoglu held a last-ditch coalition meeting Monday with the leader of Turkey's nationalist party. On Tuesday, he returned his mandate to form a new government to Erdogan just days before the Aug. 23 deadline to do so runs out. Turkey has now been left with little option but to hold a new election, probably in November.

Erdogan is apparently betting that this time around the party could reverse its losses.

Opponents have accused Erdogan of launching the military operations against the PKK in a bid to win nationalists' support and discredit a pro-Kurdish party, whose gains in the June election deprived the AKP of its majority. Last week, Erdogan cited the violence — which has wrecked a nearly three-year old peace process — in stressing the need for a strong government.

The government rejects any political motivation behind the military strikes, insisting that the operations were launched in response to PKK attacks on police and the military.

"The gamble is that the people will go back to the safe embrace of the AKP," said Cornell. "He is gambling the peace of the country and even the economy for the sake of his personal gains."

Ahead of the June election, Erdogan defied rules that require the president to be neutral, and openly campaigned on behalf of the AKP, unleashing fierce attacks on rival parties. Erdogan appeared to have kicked off a new campaign again last week, addressing neighborhood administrators and representatives of non-governmental organizations, and mounting an attack on the pro-Kurdish party's leaders.

"To go the polls at a time when people are being killed every single day can have a downside," said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Istanbul-based EDAM think tank. "The arithmetic in Parliament won't necessarily change."
___

This story has been corrected to reflect the correct spelling of Kemal Kilicdaroglu's name.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-08-19

[ezzra]

There's another megalomaniac, an ottoman sultan wannabe of a person.... and this person is allowed to lead

a prosperous country of many millions, you wonder sometime why tyranny, authoritarianism autocracy is allowed

to flourish and practiced by educated people...

[Loptr]

Hmm, nothing wrong with the current election results, except that Erdogan lost and he doesn't want to give up power...

[Kerryd]

Turkey is another country where the military isn't afraid to step in if things look to be going downhill, or if someone appears to be trying to shift the country from its secular stance. They've had 4 coups since 1960 as well as a couple of alleged/attempted coups and have overtly affected election results by issuing statements/memorandums.

However, the old guard has become just that. Old. Erdogan has apparently been trying to change out a lot of the older generals who maintain a steadfast loyalty to the ideas of a secular country as laid down by Atatürk. From the sounds of things over the last couple of years he's been pushing to give himself more and more power and trying to change the country into an Islamic state. It remains to be seen if he will be successful or if there's enough of the "old guard" remaining to prevent that (again).

[geriatrickid]

There's another megalomaniac, an ottoman sultan wannabe of a person.... and this person is allowed to lead

a prosperous country of many millions, you wonder sometime why tyranny, authoritarianism autocracy is allowed

to flourish and practiced by educated people...

The majority of the AKP support comes from the uneducated, and the poor. Turkey is not a prosperous country in the regions where the AKP is popular. Erik R. Tillman Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at DePaul University offers this analysis;

Those with less than a secondary education supported AKP over CHP by more than a three-to-one margin. However, a narrow plurality of university-educated respondents favoured the CHP. f one examines the relationship between occupational type and party support, those who perform manual work are more likely to prefer to vote for the AKP, but this pattern reverses for those with jobs requiring intellectual tasks, with these people supporting CHP.

In looking at the March 2014 exiit polls, he concluded that here is a negative relationship between income and support for AKP. Those in the lowest income group (less than 700 Turkish liras per month) voted AKP over CHP by a 42 per cent to 18 per cent margin. However, 40 per cent of those in the highest income bracket (more than 3,000 TL per month) voted CHP, compared to 30 per cent for AKP. In short, the conservative AKP relies heavily on support from working-class voters, while the self-described social democratic CHP relies on support from middle-class voters.

The AKP appeals to the ignorant and those who require the crutch of a fundamentalist rigid religion.

[Wombat6]

This guy was lucky he wasn't in Bangkok. The Bombers of the Erawan Shrine were possibly Kurdish fighters who were confused thinking it was the Erdogan Palace

[Cats4ever]

I am sad to see Turkey regressing into a backward religious state. However, as a friend said, this has occurred as democracy was properly rolled out. The army no longer calls the shots. If we all consider ourselves supporters of democracy, then I suppose we have to cop it.

[Rancid]

A few blogs being saying for a while that Erdogan is wanting to push through legislation giving himself dictatorial powers, and that stirring up the Kurds, engineering some terrorist attacks and then bombing them was part of that.

Personally I refuse to believe that a country would stage false flag terrorist actions killing their own citizens as an excuse to increase government control, empower the war machine and eliminate civil liberties. That sort of thing just wouldn't happen...