Turkey’s Erdogan and the democracy train
I guess Turkey’s Erdogan and his party didn’t do enough to fix the elections in Turkey this time, and must have underestimated the strength of his opponents, because the election didn’t go as he’d hoped. The NY Times calls it a “political quake”:
Step by step over the years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey sought to ensure nobody could challenge him. He marginalized adversaries. He purged the army, the police and the courts. He cowed the press. He strengthened his powers in the Constitution. And he promised Turks a bright economic future.
So it was a huge surprise when the outcome of weekend municipal voting showed on Monday that Mr. Erdogan’s party had not only lost control of Ankara, the political center, but maybe Istanbul, the country’s commercial center, his home city and longstanding core of support.
Even if the results were not final, they amounted to the most momentous political earthquake to shake Mr. Erdogan in nearly two decades of basically uncontested control at the helm of Turkey, a NATO ally and critical linchpin of stability in the region.
What was different this time was the rapidly tanking economy and a highly disciplined opposition.
It deployed monitors to not only scrutinize the vote tallies but also sleep on sacks of sealed counted ballots to guard against possible tampering by members of Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP.
“We think they were not able to rig the election,” said Ilayda Kocoglu, 28, vice president of the Istanbul branch of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, who slept on some sacks herself. “They were not expecting us to be that organized, or that resolved.”
Republicans, take note.
This doesn’t mean the Erdogan is finished; he remains in office. And his party has some tricks up its sleeve. They are contending all of the results, for example. I haven’t yet found a description of what that process entails in Turkey, but since Erdogan controls so much of the country and has no hesitation to clamp down to guarantee the continuation of his power, my guess is that they’ll figure out a way to reverse the results. After all, it was Erdogan who said early in his career, “Democracy is like a train; you get off once you have reached your destination.” Erdogan believes he’s the destination, and democracy was just the vehicle that got him there.
[NOTE: For more details of my opinion of Erdogan, please see this.]
I know some Turks in Istanbul who hate Erdogan and what he’s doing to the country. Fingers crossed!
Turkey is our ally in name only, and has been slowly divesting itself of its formerly secular nature, and sliding toward the Muslim camp for quite some time now.
If I were Trump, I’d keep very careful watch on Turkey.
Erdogan must hire some democrats as advisors.
Ballot stuffing apparently no longer suffices in Turkey.
But vote harvesting will.
“Turkey, a NATO ally and critical linchpin of stability in the region…” NYT – April 1, 2019
LOLROTF
Or perhaps that line is the NYT’s idea of an “April fool” joke?
Indeed it’s very hard to tell with the NYT. (Though it’s quite obvious that their latest—massive—hit piece on Israel was meant as a prank….)
On the other hand, they, in their arch wisdom, can always claim that Turkey will be “a linchpin”—until it no longer is, of course, which—oddly enough (but don’t tell them)— is already the case and has been so for years.
(Even Obama(!) was becoming “impatient” with his best bud in the region….)
Fortunately for Erdogan, though, there’s a whole slough of “factors” and “actors” and “fifth columnists” that he can blame, from Gulen to secular Turks to Trump to Bibi to World Jewry. (Still plenty of room in Turkish prisons.)
Line ’em up in a row like little duckies and let ’em have it with both barrels of his monomaniacal paranoia.
Yep, he’s a lucky one.
“Republicans take note” – indeed.
“It deployed monitors to not only scrutinize the vote tallies but also sleep on sacks of sealed counted ballots to guard against possible tampering by members of Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP.”
I suspect Mr. Erdogan also has some of the magic car trunks that the Democrats find so handy for teleporting ballot boxes.
No ballots not in the official counting room before the counting starts should ever be admitted later.
BBC post says these were the results in the three cities:
Istanbul – 48.8% CHP, 48.5% AKP
Ankara – 50.9% CHP, 47% AKP
Izmir – 58% CHP, 38.6% AKP
Don’t be fooled. Even in the cities his party didn’t lose by much. His support is NOT in cities, where, obviously, a fair number of Turks dislike him. His support comes from rural areas, where the less-educated and far more fundamentalist voters abide. When he starts losing in those areas, then maybe we have something to be happy about. “Political quake” indeed. The New York Times is beginning to sound like the CIA, i.e., wrong about everything, every time out.
Sleeping on top of ballot bags! That shows real drive. I like it. If I were in a swing state here, I’d volunteer to do so. Alas, I am not!
Turkey under Erodogan a terrorist state. They belong in nato as much as California. We need to stop pretending we have allies beyond Israel and a few others. Basically, we are alone. In fact, we have few allies within the 50 states. Time to dissolve the failed union and move forward before bullets meet the bone.
If Turkish democratic forces can stop Erdogan, winning elections in the big cities, first, is the only peaceful method.
Which Erdogan also knows.
So I expect Erdogan to steal these elections back, tho not with the vote harvesting that Dems used to “steal” some elections in the US.
He is emulating too many Presidents for life. Like Chavez, and so many in Africa.
So sad.