Turks went to the polls on Sunday amid worsening security and economic worries, in a snap parliamentary election that could profoundly impact the divided country’s trajectory and that of President Tayyip Erdogan. This is the second parliamentary poll in five months, after the ruling AK Party founded by Erdogan failed to retain its single-party majority in June. Since then, a ceasefire with Kurdish militants has collapsed into bloodshed, the Syria crisis has worsened, and NATO-member Turkey has been hit by two Islamic State-linked suicide bomb attacks, killing more than 130. There has been little sign of the flags, posters and campaign buses that thronged the streets in the build-up to June’s vote, but Erdogan has framed this sombre re-run as a pivotal opportunity for Turkey to return to single-party AKP rule after months of political uncertainty. The election couldn’t have come at a more unfortunate time, for Turkey faces serious domestic and foreign policy crises. The biggest foreign policy issue is the multilateral war in Turkey’s underbelly, the menacing rise of the self-styled Islamic State, the mass flight of Syrians to Turkey and beyond, Russia’s greater military involvement in the Syrian conflict, the American reservations about Russia’s choice of targets, and terror attacks blamed on the IS. Domestically, the breakdown of the truce with the PKK has shattered hopes for a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish insurgency, while Mr Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style of governance has aroused anger in civil society and polarised the nation. All this has served to undermine Mr Erdogan’s achievements, which include the assertion of civilian supremacy and an economy that is the world’s 15th largest. The issue is Mr Erdogan’s personality. He should give up feeling he is indispensable and should show flexibility when his party sets out to negotiate a stable coalition.
pk.shafaqna.com
