Yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), in office since 2002, suffered its first electoral defeat. Although the AKP is likely to remain relevant in the Turkish political scene for the foreseeable future, the danger of Erdoğan accumulating more power and establishing a volatile and autocratic regime has passed.
To counter his enemies, Erdoğan had emphasized the need to create an all-powerful presidency — similar to that of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. To that end he had asked the Turkish electorate to give the AKP 330 parliamentary seats to rewrite the constitution.
They refused. AKP will get …read more
Source: European Voice
