Turkish Parliamentary and Presidential Elections 2018

Turkey’s early parliamentary and presidential elections are arguably the most important that the country has faced since the installation of a shaky democratic system. If, as is predicted, the incumbent President Erdogan manages to defeat his challengers and the AKP obtains a parliamentary majority, it would arguably mark Turkey’s definitive passage from authoritarian democracy to the personalised rule of an increasingly totalitarian Erdogan. The election campaign has been scarred by number of worrying features: it was conducted under Emergency Rule, the AKP led clampdown on the media has deprived opposition parties of any semblance of fair media coverage, opposition parties’ campaigners have suffered violence and intimidation and the largely Kurdish party, the HDP,  has been juridically targeted resulting in the imprisonment of nine of its deputies, 54 of its mayors and hundreds of its grassroots activists, as well the on-going pre-trial detention of its presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtaş.

This series of blogs will analyse the role of violence in the campaign and how it has hindered opposition mobilisation, how minorities have adapted to the repressive political environment, the role of new actors such as the İyi party and pre-electoral alliances and culminating in an overview of the elections and their potential domestic and international repercussions.

All post

Das Ende der Türkei, wie wir sie kannten?

New Presidential Compound in Ankara, AOÇ (Beştepe)
Die zweite Amtszeit Recep Tayyip Erdoğans als türkischer Präsident und die gleichzeitige Ausweitung der präsidialen Regierungsbefugnisse bedeutet das vorläufige Ende des parlamentarischen Systems der Türkei. Die folgenreiche Transformation erfolgte auf der Grundlage eines ...

New Alliances and Old Traditions in Turkish Politics

For the first time in Turkey, political parties were allowed to build electoral alliances for parliamentary elections, and curious alliances did enter the political stage. Especially the “Nation Alliance” (Millet İttifakı) which was initiated by the centre-left main ...

Die Wahlen vom 24.06.2018 und ihre Auswirkungen auf die christlichen Minderheiten der Türkei

Das Tur Abdin-Gebirge ist die Heimat der syrisch-orthodoxen Minderheit in der Türkei
Mit dem Eintritt der radikal-nationalistischen MHP in die türkische Regierung könnte sich die feindliche Stimmung gegen die christlichen Minderheiten im Lande noch verstärken. Gleichzeitig erzielte mit der pro-kurdischen HDP eine Partei beachtliche Ergebnisse, die sich ...

The HDP’s Performance in Turkey’s Authoritarian Electoral Campaign

HDP supporters at a 2015 rally
Contrary to some predictions prior to the election, the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan comfortably succeeded in winning the Presidential election (52.6%) without the need of a second round of voting. His party, the AKP obtained a parliamentary majority (53.7%), in ...