Big Win by Turkey’s AKP Signals Vote for Stability
Decisive win for AKP in Turkey could add pressure for peace deal with Kurdish PKK militants
Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, also known as AKP, won 317 seats in the General National Assembly with Sunday’s election– more than expected and more than the 276 needed for a majority, but not enough to change the constitution directly. The results confounded pollsters since AKP failed to win a majority in June elections or form a coalition government. “Confronting renewed conflict with Kurdish militant groups and the devastating consequences of four years of war in Syria, Turks voted to continue current policies to manage the country’s long-running conflicts,” writes Chris Miller, associate director of Yale University’s Grand Strategy Program. Western partners are impatient with the Turkish president’s intolerance of opposition. The decisive win, combined with increased support for AKP from ethnic Kurds, could add pressure for a peace deal with Kurdish PKK militants, Miller explains. Turkey’s ruling party and the Kurds have reason to cooperate in battling Islamic State extremists that control large sections of neighboring Syria and threaten the entire region.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu salutes supporters during a rally of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), in Ankara, Turkey, on Oct. 31, 2015. Umit Bektas/AP
NEW HAVEN—In a result that confounded pollsters, Turkey’s ruling AK Party won a new majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday. Within Turkey and among its neighbors, the vote will be seen as a decisive endorsement of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the political party that has governed Turkey since 2002. Confronting renewed conflict with Kurdish militant groups and the devastating consequences of four years of war in Syria, Turks voted to continue current policies to manage the country’s long-running conflicts.
The decisive victory for the Justice and Development Party was not only surprising because the party won an outright majority in Parliament, reversing an indecisive June election that saw the AK Party’s support fall to decade lows and led to a hung Parliament. In the election on Nov. 1, however, the party not only won back its parliamentary majority, it did significantly better than polls had predicted, taking over 49 percent of the popular vote, according to provisional figures. The secularist CHP won 25 percent of the vote, similar to its June results, while both the far-right MHP and the Kurdish leftwing HDP lost votes, each winning around 11 percent.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the mukhtars meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara on Nov. 4, 2015. Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
