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Globalization and politics

Yavuz Baydar
Journalist
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piqer: Yavuz Baydar
Thursday, 28 June 2018

Losing Was Never An Option For Erdoğan And His Cronies

The election results in Turkey caused perhaps the greatest trauma ever for the country's Kemalist and leftist elite, as much as those secular voters who had hoped that his era would be ended by a democratic voting process. 

Time will tell if this was the greatest mass illusion ever, but there are already signs that Erdoğan used his powers to mobilize all that he had at hand to maintain his position, as he successfully pushed Turkey across an existential threshold to a new regime, which may be called a 'super-autocracy'.

He is, therefore, set to rule unencumbered for the next five years under an enhanced presidential system that reduces parliament to a rubber stamp.

Some in Turkey already object that the democracy is not dead and buried, arguing that the pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, entered parliament, passing the 10 % threshold of the national vote.

But in a powerful essay, Henri Barkey disagrees.

...paradoxically, the opposition’s progress will end up benefiting Mr Erdogan. He will be able to deflect criticism – especially that coming from Europeans – of election manipulation and unfairness by pointing out that the Kurds did manage to get into parliament after all. Had the opposition won a majority in parliament, then the HDP’s presence would have significantly mattered, which is why Mr Erdogan used all the powers of the state apparatus to thwart them.

Barkey underlines two points he claims the opposition overlooked.

  • For Erdogan and his cronies, losing was never an option. They were ready to deploy – and they did – all the resources of the state and the media they controlled.
  • The AKP is a party that is in continuous electoral mobilisation mode. Its local apparatus is extremely effective, has direct knowledge about voters at the local level, can mobilise supporters, bring them to the polls and ensure high participation rates.
Losing Was Never An Option For Erdoğan And His Cronies
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