Erdo?an’s half victory

The Kurdish people have brought peace to the political agenda

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, choosing to speak from the balcony of his party’s headquarters, has underlined once more the way he feels about himself: some feet above every other person.
The 49.9% his party got is certainly sign of the consensus there is for his person. Although the Kurds (and not just them) have sent him a very strong message: behaving arrogantly and aggressively does not go down well with the people who live in the South East of the country.
The AKP (Justice and Development Party) did performed well, gaining some 3.3% more than in the 2007 general elections. But this did not bring Erdo?an right where he wanted: to the point where he could decide about the new Constitution without going to a referendum. The AKP did not get the two thirds majority required for being able to change the Constitution without referring the changes to the people for approval or rejection. And this must have annoyed the Prime Minister, who will certainly not seat on his hands. Indeed talks and bargaining will begin very soon to see if it would be possible to ‘buy’ some deputies to the AKP and Erdo?an’s cause. Because the Prime Minister had made no mystery of the fact that he wants to become president of the country.
These elections though have shown that if indeed the Constitution has to be put on the parliament’s agenda, the other issue strongly voiced was the Kurdish Question. Taking a glance at the results in the East and South East regions the request of the people living there is as clear as the sky: peace and rights for the Kurdish people. In the South East the independent candidates performed extremely well, gaining 32.37% of the votes. That is a solid 27.13% more than in the previous general elections, in 2007. The ruling AKP gained 51.38% of the votes, up around 5% compared to 2007. The opposition CHP collapsed gaining 8.71% of the votes, down some 12%. The nationalist MHP also lost passing from 14.27% in the 2007 to yesterday’s 4.16%.

In the East region the message was as strong if not stronger than in the South East with the independent candidates from the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block gaining 26.69% of the votes (they had 5.24% in 2007). The AKP went up some 5% to 51.57%.

Looking even closer to the results, the message to Erdo?an from the Kurdish people become even clearer. In Bitlis the AKP lost some 8% of the votes, with the Block gaining an 18.5% more than in 2007. Same results in A?ri where the AKP lost 15.48% of the votes, while the Block went up by 18.88%.

The Block performed strongly in Bingol (up 9.71% while AKP lost 4.07% of the votes), Van (up 17.04% while the AKP lost 13.04%), Mardin (up 22.24% while the AKP lost 12.02%), Hakkari (up 21.04% while the AKP lost 17.07%), Sirnak (up 21.04 while the AKP lost 6.06%).

Diyarbakir also confirmed to be a stronghold for the independent candidates supported by the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party): the Block gained 62% of the votes (up 15.07% while the AKP was down by 8%).

From the results it is clear that the Kurds have voted also for the project of the Democratic Autonomy to be implemented. And they voted for peace and justice.

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