Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

An AKP supporter holds a portrait of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as people celebrate outside the party's headquarters in Istanbul. Emrah Gurel/AP/Press Association Images
good news for erdogan

Protests and celebrations as Turkey's ruling party storms to election victory

The Justice and Development Party secured a parliamentary majority in the country’s second election this year.

TURKEY’S PRESIDENT Tayyip Erdogan is celebrating a major victory for his single-party government in the country’s parliamentary election yesterday.

The ruling Justice and Development Party reclaimed the parliamentary majority it lost just five months ago, confounding opinion polls which had predicted another hung parliament.

An emboldened Erdogan said the people of Turkey had voted for “stability” after renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels and a wave of bloody jihadist attacks since the last election in June.

Turkish stocks and the lira soared on the results, which ended five months of political uncertainty, but many were wary about the future of the troubled country under a more powerful AKP.

“The will of the nation has shown itself in favour of stability,” Erdogan told reporters after morning prayers at an Istanbul mosque.

He called for Turks to “remain united” and said the entire world should respect the result.

His Islamic-leaning conservative party won almost half the vote to secure 316 seats in the 550-member parliament according to final but unofficial results, easily enough to form a government on its own.

Turkey Election A man kisses a portrait of Erdogan published on a local newspaper a day after the election, in Istanbul. Hussein Malla Hussein Malla

‘What is awaiting us?’ 

AKP supporters honked their horns in celebration but many Turks greeted the result with dismay, and clashes erupted briefly in the main Kurdish city between police and angry demonstrators.

“I’m horrified. I don’t want to live in this country anymore because I don’t know what is awaiting us,” said Guner Soganci, 26, a waitress in Istanbul.

The AKP lost its majority for the first time in 13 years in June, when the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) entered parliament for the first time.

The political landscape has changed dramatically since then, with the country even more divided along ethnic, religious and political lines.

Turkey Election A masked protester runs past garbage set on fire by supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples's Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Lefteris Pitarakis Lefteris Pitarakis

Analysts said it appeared voters had turned away from the nationalist and Kurdish parties after a surge in violence between Turkish forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in July led to the collapse of a fragile 2013 truce.

Turkey was also rocked by a string of attacks blamed on the Islamic State group, including twin suicide bombings at an Ankara peace rally last month that killed 102 people – the bloodiest in Turkey’s modern history.

The international community will also be watching Turkey’s policy towards neighbouring Syria, after it was finally cajoled into joining the US-led coalition against IS and launched its own “war on terrorism” against the jihadists, PKK fighters and even US-backed Syrian Kurds.

- © AFP, 2015

Read: Two police among nine killed in shootout between Turkish police and IS suspects

Read: Scenes of anger and mourning as Turkey remembers 95 killed by bombings

Your Voice
Readers Comments
15
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.