Erdogan has not won the elections in Turkey. How come? No elections took place in Turkey. It was a farce. Some time ago already, Erdogan had imprisoned thousands of HDP politicians. As a result, the HDP could no longer run an effective electoral and referendum campaign. Erdogan’s objective was simple: Push the pro-Kurdish and left-leaning HDP below the 10%-bar to enter parliament. In June 2018, despite all repression, Erdogan did not suceed but nevertheless managed both to win an absolute majority of seats in parliament and to be re-elected as president of Turkey.
In the so-called June 2018 general “election”, anybody critical of Erdogan and the AKP risked to be labeled a “terrorist” and, therefore, even risked to end up in jail. Roughly 90% of all mass-media are in the hands of Erdogan, the AKP and/or businessmen close to Erdogan and the AKP. There is no more free press. Free speech is limited in a general climate of intimidation. The rule of law has largely been undermined in recent years. Erdogan and his regime are totally corrupt and did everything to prevent any investigation into their illegal activities.
The so-called “elections” were never free and fair. And what do the United States do in this situation? In a ceremony in Forth Worth, Texas, they handed over to the Turkish air force a first Lockheed Martin F-35A joint strike fighter. In short, the most advanced technology the United States have to offer, the world’s best combat jet, is handed over to Erdogan who has established an autoritarian regime in Turkey. Despite this fact, Turkey remains a member of Nato. At the same time, the Turkish President Erdogan has established close ties with the equally authoritarian Russian President Putin who, not so long ago, in a farce similar to the Turkish one, got himself “re-elected” in another pseudo-election.
As for the European Union, criticism of Erdogan has been pretty mild in the past. People with a brain remember that German Chancellor Merkel had ignored Erdogan for years when he moved Turkey in the right direction during his first years in power. However, when she needed him in the 2015 refugee crisis, she came to his rescue and made a pilgrimage to Turkey for a photo-op with the “Sultan” just before the 2015 election.
This reminded me of the beginning of the Nazi era when then President Hindenburg appointed Hitler and, therefore, was dubbed “Steigbügelhalter” of Hitler and the Nazis, meaning enabler of the Nazi rise to power. Erdogan is not Hitler and Merkel is not Hindenburg, but Merkel’s Turkey visit just before the election was another low-point in her miserable career.
As for the 2018 general “election” in Turkey, according to the official, preliminary results, Erdogan’s AKP and their ally, the nationalist MHP, won together 343 seats in the 600-seat parliament. The alliance of the oppositional social-democratic, Kemalist CHP of Muharrem Ince, the nationalist, secular and conservative iYi of Meral Akşener and the Felicity Party (SP) ended up with 190 seats. The pro-Kurdish, left-leaning HDP, allied with nobody, won 67 seats.
In detail, in the 2018 Turkish parliamentary election the AKP won 42.54% and the MHP 11.11%, the CHP won 33.96%, the iYi 9.97% and the Felicity Party (SP) 1.35%, the HDP ended up with 11.69%.
In the 2018 presidential election, President Erdogan (AKP) was re-elected with 52.58% ahead of Muharrem Ince (CHP) with 30.64%, the currently imprisoned Selahattin Demirtaş (HDP) with 8.39% and Meral Akşener (iYi) with 7.3%.
President Erdogan. Photo: Wikipedia / Wikimedia / public domain.
