Losers of the Turkish Elections: Political Absolutism, Economic Corruption, and Religious Biases

Perhaps nothing is more interesting in life than witnessing a historic moment in the fate of a nation or people from time to time. Such a fateful moment for the Turkish nation occurred during the parliamentary elections on June 7, 2015, and fate had it that I personally witnessed it in Istanbul. This time, Turkey's nascent democracy experienced a decline of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the loss of over 20 seats in the Turkish parliament. While many Turkish and international political analysts predicted the parliamentary defeat of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party, few were confident about the entry of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The victory of the HDP, which garnered 12.6% of the votes alongside the Republican People's Party (25%) and the Nationalist Movement Party (16.2%), caused the ruling party, despite securing the first position in the elections, to lose more than half of the 550 seats in the Turkish parliament. Notably, this is the first time in 13 years that President Erdoğan and the AKP have lost their absolute majority in parliament and now need to form a government in coalition with other parties. Undoubtedly, this sudden change in the parliamentary structure of Turkey not only inflicts a fatal blow to the political absolutism of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political and religious ambitions but also has significant implications and consequences. In this regard, the main losers of the recent elections in Turkey are political absolutism, economic corruption, and religious and ideological biases. The presence of over 20 parties in the Turkish parliamentary elections and the participation of 55 million eligible citizens in 85 electoral districts across 81 provinces, which took place largely without violence and fraud, led many young and old Turkish citizens to actively participate in these elections from the early hours of June 7. Ramin Jahanbegloo notes that first, it marks the end of Erdoğan's dream to change Turkey's political system from a parliamentary to a presidential one and limits his political power within the framework of future legislations. Then, it signifies the unprecedented rise of the pro-peace and civil liberties Kurdish party, which paves the way for Kurdish participation in Turkey's political game for the first time. Finally, it represents an important victory for civil society forces in Turkey, which, over the past year, have announced other civic protests through the ballot box following conflicts over the deaths of miners in Soma and the Gezi Park incident. The recent elections in Turkey further demonstrated that freedom, citizenship rights, and civil responsibilities are essential and fundamental pillars of democracy and its political and institutional advancement. What surprised and pleased me was seeing hundreds of young Turkish students who, along with their professors, Turkish lawyers, and law enforcement, maintained order during these elections. Some of them remained at the polling stations until the last moments of voting and counting, actively participating in civil society to safeguard Turkey's young democracy. From the perspective of Iranian analysts, the bitter political defeat for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP is accompanied by the sweet victory of democracy in Turkey, which paves the way for future cooperation and solidarity between Islamists and secularists and may also provide an important historical lesson for us in other countries in the region.